MARIA S. MERIAN MSM117
- Area:
- Recife (Brazil) - Ponta Delgada (Azores)
- Time:
-
10.05.2023 - 15.06.2023
- Institution:
- GEOMAR
- Chief scientist:
- Rebecca Hummels
The research programme of cruise MSM117 is composed of observations for the EU Horizon2020 project TRIATLAS and GEOMAR's programme-oriented Research (POF).
Within the framework of GEOMAR's POF goals, the cruise aims to investigate the variability of the western boundary current circulation off South America and to estimate the strength and variability of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) at 11°S. A specific focus lies on the transport variability of the North Brazilian Undercurrent (NBUC) and the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) on intraseasonal to decadal time scales. The meridional section along 35°W as well as the mooring maintenance at 23°W at the equator provides additional information with respect to signal propagation along and across the equator. These investigations also contribute to the EU project TRIATLAS, whereas for TRIATLAS additional measurements along the Brazilian shelf and over two submarine mountains are planned. Here the focus is on the interaction of the current with the topography, the resulting biogeochemical conditions and ultimately the impact on the local ecosystem.
Figure 1: Left: Stations of the MSM117 research cruise as white circles, red circles mark the stations that have already been carried out on the current section (35°W). Right: Representation of the currently measured velocities of the stations marked in red in the image on the left. The current velocity component perpendicular to the route is shown here, in this case the zonal component, which is composed of the measurements from the ship's own ADCP and the L(owered)ADCP.