Cruise summaries of Oceanus cruises 205, leg 8, and 216

Abstract

A study of the upper ocean thermal and density structure in the northwestern Atlantic in 1989 compared temperature and density measurements made with Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT) and Conductivity-Temperature-Depth instruments with current data from an acoustic Doppler current profiler and satellite infrared imagery and altimetry. Two cruises were made in the spring and winter of 1989 with the goal of directly measuring the upper ocean currents and variabilty of the Gulf Stream. The XBT observations were used to extend the measured velocities geostrophically from the near-surface region to depths of 750 meters, thereby allowing transport estimates to be made for the upper ocean. In April the measurments were compared and used with the GEOSAT altimeter which, unfortunately, was not operating during the December cruise.