RRS James Cook Cruise JC174, 20 October-26 November 2018. Rapid cruise report for cruise JC174

Abstract

The purpose of RRS James Cook cruise JC174 was to refurbish the RAPID 26°N array of moorings that span the Atlantic from the Bahamas to the Canary Islands. Las Palmas on Saturday 20th October 2018 and ended in the evening of Tuesday 26th November at Freeport, Bahamas. There was a port call at Nassau, Bahamas on 16th November to take on board additional equipment and one scientist. The moorings are part of a purposeful Atlantic wide array that monitors the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the associated heat transport. The RAPID-MOCHA-WBTS array is a joint UK- US programme. During JC174 moorings were serviced at sites: EBH4, EBH4L, EBH3, EBH2, EBH1, EBH1L, EBHi, EB1, EB1L, MAR3, MAR3L, MAR2, MAR1, MAR1L, MAR0, WB6, WB4, WB4L, WBH2, WB2, WB2L, WB1, WBADCP and WBAL. Sites with suffix ‘L’ denote landers fitted with bottom pressure recorders. Moorings were equipped with instruments to measure temperature, conductivity and pressure, and a number of moorings were also equipped with current meters and/or oxygen sensors. The ABC Fluxes project extends the measurements on the RAPID 26°N array to include biological and chemical measurements. CTD stations were conducted throughout the cruise for purposes of providing pre- and post- deployment calibrations for mooring instrumentation (including oxygen and carbonate chemistry sampling) and for testing mooring releases prior to deployment. The RAPID telemetry system was deployed adjacent to mooring WB2, and 24 temperature sensors and 2 75kHz ADCPs were recovered from mooring WB1 for the MerMEED project. Shipboard underway measurements were systematically logged, processed and calibrated, including: surface meteorology, 5m depth sea temperatures and salinities, water depth, and navigation. Water velocity profiles from 15 m to approximately 800 m depth were obtained using two vessel mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (one 75 kHz and one 150 kHz)

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