ACM10 (Deep Basin)

This component of the Deep Basin experiment produced 22 current meter records from 6 moorings. You can view metadata and/or download the records by clicking on links in the table below. A brief description of the experiment also is available. Each current meter record is identified in the table by its depth and the name of the mooring. You may want to look at a map of the array first 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.

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The mooring array was designed to extend in a north-south direction at 36 deg W with 6 moorings equally spaced between 1 deg N and 1.5 deg S (see map). These locations evenly filled the passage between the Brazil and Guiana Basins from north to south, and put the array at approximately the east-west center of the almost perfectly zonal gap that steers the AABW. The depths of the Vector Averaging Current Meters (VACMs) were chosen to optimize measurement of the AABW. All six moorings had current meters placed at roughly 3900, 4100, and 4300 meter depths. The two moorings at roughly 1 deg N and S of the equator each had an additional VACM close to 3300 meters in depth to provide more information about the vertical shear and levels of no motion. One mooring, placed almost exactly on the equator, had VACMs at 2993, 3593, and 4485 meters in addition to the nominal depths mentioned above. Also on the equatorial mooring were four Aanderaa current meters, placed at shallower levels for use by scientists at the Institut fur Meereskunde, Kiel, Germany.

CTD profiles were taken near each mooring and between mooring locations during both the launch and mooring recovery cruises. The data report (referenced below) contains plots showing temperature and salinity traces, TS diagrams, and contoured vertical sections, as well as plots of the filtered current meter time series.

Related publications

Hall, M.M., J.A. Whitehead and M.S. McCartney (1994): Moored measurements of Antarctic Bottom Water at the Equator. International WOCE Newsletter No. 17, 5-8.

Hall, M.M., M. McCartney and J.A. Whitehead (1997): Antarctic Bottom Water flux in the equatorial western Atlantic. J. Phys. Oceanog., 27(9), 1903-1926.

Tarbell, S.A., J.A.Whitehead, M.M.Hall, and M.S.McCartney (1997): Trans-Equatorial Bottom Water Flow in the Western Atlantic. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Technical Report WHOI-97-01.

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