Long-term observations in the North Atlantic will be continued

14. August 2020/Kiel, Emden. Due to COVID-19, German research vessels that would normally be located all over the world's oceans had to return to Germany. Even though unfortunately some expeditions had to be postponed to later dates, replacement plans and hygiene regulations were quickly designed to allow trips from Germany. One of these trips is the expedition MSM94 of the research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN, originally planned for September from Canada. On August 2, this voyage now started from Emden in the direction of the Labrador Sea, the area between Canada and Greenland. The main goal of the expedition is to study the so-called "Deep Western Boundary Current", a current band that can be followed along the continental shelf from Greenland to the South Atlantic and is usually only visible at depths of more than 2 km. In the Labrador Sea, the upper part of the boundary current forms and the team aboard MSM94 has set out to better understand the oceanographic processes associated with the boundary current. Variations in volume transport and the characteristics of the water masses in the marginal current may be indicators of climate change. For the analyses, instruments that were installed on MSM74 two years ago will be recovered. During the long journey from the port of Emden to the first stopover in St. Johns, Canada, where fuel was collected, the MARIA S. MERIAN has already collected data on the way. This is done in cooperation with the DAM Underway Research Data project.  

The cruise is integrated in various projects: the international OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program), which has been conducting a basin-wide survey of the circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic since 2016, and the EU project EuroSea, which is coordinated at GEOMAR and aims to improve ocean and coastal observations.

On their blog the researchers, led by Dr. Johannes Karstensen, report on their work and experiences during the cruise.