This component of ACM8 produced 37 current meter records from 11 moorings. You can view metadata and download current records by clicking on links in the table below. Each current record is identified in the table by its depth and the name of the mooring. A brief description of the experiment also is available. You may want to look at a map of the array to see where the moorings were. If you download any of the current meter records you should review the note on file format. From here you can also move up one level to the list of WOCE experiments.
September 91 - September 92
September 92 - October 92
September 93 - May 94
May 94 - June 95
October 95 - July 96
July 96 - August 97
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The dominant meridional circulation in the North Atlantic
carries near-surface waters of tropical and subtropical
origin northward, and deep waters of arctic and subarctic
origin southward. ACM8 (which includes this component plus
two additional components - Denmark Strait Overflow and
Iceland-Faroe Overflow) was motivated by a wish to measure
the transports of mass, heat, and salt that are associated
with this circulation. These are important parameters for
modelling the ocean's role in climate.
The 34 current records that CMDAC has acquired from this
portion of ACM8 were obtained over a period of four years,
on moorings deployed in three areas along a line stretching
from the southern tip of Greenland to Ireland (see map). Three of the moorings were
installed in September 1991 and recovered during September
1992. Two were installed in August and September of 1992
and recovered in September 1993. One mooring was installed
during September 1993 and recovered in May 1994. Finally,
two moorings were installed in May 1994 and recovered in
June 1995. All of the moorings carried Aanderaa current
meters - RCM4's, RCM5's, RCM7's, and RCM8's.
A note on mooring names: We have 4 moorings here designated
A, B, E, and F. There were at least two other moorings, C
and D, about which CMDAC has received no information; nor
has BSH sent us data from them. Mooring names have two letters,
the first of which indicates location and the second of which
indicates time sequence. Thus, Mooring A1 was in place from
September 91 through September 92; it was replaced by Mooring
A2 (at approximately the same location) which was in place from
September 92 through October 92. CMDAC has no information from
or about Mooring A3. Mooring A4 was deployed near the sites
of A1 and A2, and was in place from May 94 through June 95.
Additional information about the experiment is available in a
data report titled "WOCE Current measurements: the ACM8 array"
(Berichte des Bundesamtes fur Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie
Nr. 8, published by BSH Hamburg, 1996). See also the data
report "WOCE-NORD 1991, Cruise No. 18, 2 September - 26 September
1991" (Meteor Berichte No. 93-1, published by IFM Hamburg).
Other relevant publications:
Sy, A., U. Schauer and J. Meincke (1992): The North Atlantic Current
and its associated hydrographic structure above and eastward of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Deep-Sea Research, 39(5A), 825-853.
Bersch, M. and J. Meincke (1995): Meridional transport estimates
for the northern North Atlantic. International WOCE Newsletter,
18, 28-31.
Mittelstaedt, E., J. Meincke and H. Klein (1996): WOCE current
measurements: the ACM8 array. Berichte des Bundesamtes fur
Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie, 8, 149pp.
Sy, A., M. Rhein, J.R.N. Lazier, K.P. Koltermann, J. Meincke,
A. Putzka and M. Bersch (1997): Surprisingly rapid spreading of
newly formed intermediate waters across the North Atlantic Ocean.
Nature, 386(6626), 675-679.
Bersch, M, J. Meincke and A. Sy (1999): Interannual thermohaline
changes in the North Atlantic 1991-1996. Deep-Sea Research II,
46(1/2), 55-75.
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These files have been compressed with the ZIP compression utility.
After downloading them, you will need to expand them. WinZip or Pkzip
will do the job on a PC that is running Microsoft Windows. Under Linux,
gunzip will expand these files. Other utilities are available for the
UNIX and Macintosh environments (for example, unzip and/or gunzip are
present on most UNIX systems). After expansion, you will have binary
files in the netCDF format.
netCDF is a self-documenting format that can be accessed by a variety
of software tools. You can click here
to learn about netCDF and available software packages that can be used
to read and manipulate netCDF files.
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mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
A1
263 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 01 Jun 92
view metadata
download record
A1
876 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
A1
2088 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
A1
2551 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
B1
209 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
B1
822 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
B1
1534 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
B1
1996 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
08 Sep 91 - 05 Sep 92
view metadata
download record
F1
210 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
19 Sep 91 - 30 Aug 92
view metadata
download record
F1
510 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
19 Sep 91 - 30 Aug 92
view metadata
download record
F1
810 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
19 Sep 91 - 30 Aug 92
view metadata
download record
F1
2010 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
19 Sep 91 - 29 Aug 92
view metadata
download record
F1
3010 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
19 Sep 91 - 30 Aug 92
view metadata
download record
F1
3460 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
19 Sep 91 - 19 Feb 92
view metadata
download record
mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
A2
861 meters
Aanderaa RCM4
05 Sep 92 - 21 Oct 93
view metadata
download record
A2
2063 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
05 Sep 92 - 21 Oct 93
view metadata
download record
A2
2526 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
05 Sep 92 - 29 Jun 93
view metadata
download record
E2
175 meters
Aanderaa RCM4
02 Sep 92 - 11 Sep 93
view metadata
download record
E2
2825 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
02 Sep 92 - 14 Sep 93
view metadata
download record
F2
181 meters
Aanderaa RCM4
30 Aug 92 - 05 Aug 93
view metadata
download record
F2
481 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
30 Aug 92 - 10 Sep 93
view metadata
download record
F2
781 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
30 Aug 92 - 05 Sep 93
view metadata
download record
F2
1981 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
30 Aug 92 - 11 Sep 93
view metadata
download record
F2
2981 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
30 Aug 92 - 04 Sep 93
view metadata
download record
F2
3431 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
30 Aug 92 - 05 Aug 93
view metadata
download record
mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
E3
439 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
15 Sep 93 - 27 May 94
view metadata
download record
E3
1040 meters
Aanderaa RCM4
15 Sep 93 - 27 May 94
view metadata
download record
mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
A4
269 meters
Aanderaa RCM7
31 May 94 - 10 Jun 95
view metadata
download record
A4
882 meters
Aanderaa RCM7
31 May 94 - 10 Jun 95
view metadata
download record
A4
2092 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
31 May 94 - 10 Jun 95
view metadata
download record
A4
2551 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
31 May 94 - 02 Aug 94
view metadata
download record
E4
439 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
27 May 94 - 06 Jun 95
view metadata
download record
E4
1041 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
27 May 94 - 06 Jun 95
view metadata
download record
E4
3095 meters
Aanderaa RCM5
27 May 94 - 02 Jun 95
view metadata
download record
mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
VE1
2192 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
03 Oct 95 - 23 Jul 96
view metadata
download record
VE1
2292 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
03 Oct 95 - 23 Jul 96
view metadata
download record
mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
VE21
2567 meters
Aanderaa RCM8
23 Jul 96 - 24 Aug 97
view metadata
download record
Brief Description
Meincke, J. (1989): The Greenland Sea Project. WOCE Newsletter,
8, 14-15.
Format of the current records