RRS Discovery Cruise 312, 11-31 Oct 2006. The extended Ellett Line 2006

Abstract

UK oceanographers have been making repeated measurements on a short section across the Rockall Trough, since 1975. The section consists of a series of stations from the Scottish continental shelf to Rockall. The time series was established by David Ellett and was thus called the "Ellett Line". The Ellett line is one of a relatively small number of high quality physical time series in the North Atlantic Ocean and is important for monitoring oceanic climate variability.

Since 1996 NOCS and SAMS have been occupying an extended version of the Ellett Line that runs all the way to Iceland. The Extended Ellett line is important oceanographically because it completes the measurements of the warm saline water flowing into the Nordic Seas from the eastern North Atlantic. It also monitors around half of the returning deep and cold current, the overflow water (the rest returns to the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait to the west of Iceland).

There is little added cost, either in time or financially, in making a number of biogeochemical measurements using water samples from the hydrographers' CTD stations. Thus, recently, the scientific interests in the Extended Ellett line have become more multidisciplinary; the 2006 occupation was no exception. Samples were filtered for POC, HPLC studies and trace aluminium concentration determination, in addition some extra time was found for a number of zooplankton net hauls.

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