METEOR M106

Cruise M106 is a joint effort of the Kiel Col- laborative Research Center SFB 754 (”Cli- mate - Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean“), of the BMBF joint pro- ject RACE, and of the German-French Co- operativeProjectAWA.Withintheframe- work of the SFB 754, ventilation processes of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ), includ- ing lateral mixing, vertical mixing and oxy- gen advection (subproject (SP) A3 and A4) as well as the role of zooplankton for oxygen consumption and biogeochemical cycles (SP B8) will be investigated. At the equator, the cruise will focus on the equatorial current system, its interannual variability and its role in the zonal transport of heat, freshwa- ter, and oxygen (BMBF RACE, SFB 754).
Within the framework of RACE the aim of this cruise is to investigate the variability of the western boundary current system off South America. A particular focus will be on the transport variability of the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) – as part of the me- ridional overturning circulation (AMOC) – on timescales from intraseasonal to decadal. The main tasks during M106 will be the recovery and redeployment of several subsurface moorings, a glider swarm experiment in the center of the OMZ, and station work with a CTD/Lowered ADCP/Underwater Vision Profiler (UVP), a microstructure probe and a zooplankton multinet. In addition, underway measurements of upper ocean currents with the two shipboard ADCPs and hydrographic measurements with the thermosalinograph probe will be performed.