Abstract:
The Barents Sea Polar Front Experiment was a combined physical oceanography and acoustic tomography field study
which took place from 6-26 August 1992. Both shipboard and moored data were collected in a 80 x 70 km experimental
region on the south flank of Sptisbergen Bank about 60 km east of Bear Island. Of principal interest in this report are the
data from an Acoustic Doppler Current Profier (ADCP) which was operated continuously during the experimental period as
a part of the shipboard instrumentation aboard the USNS Barlett. The data from eight current meters deployed on three
moorings in the experimental region are used to supplement the ADCP analysis. Preliminary results showed that velocities
in the experimental region were dominated by semi-diurnal tides. The strong tidal oscilations dictated the use of a tide
removal scheme to extract a steady flow component from the space-time grid of ADCP velocities. This report describes the
configuration and operation of the ADCP, the space-time sampling grid on which the data were collected, the determination
of absolute velocity from the ADCP measurements, and the application and results of a tide removal technique which
allowed estimation of the sub-tidal flow.
