The Long Term Upper Ocean Study (Lotus) : cruise summary and hydrographic data report : Endeavor 97, April 1983

Abstract

ENDEAVOR cruise number 97 (8-19 April, 1983) was the ninth scheduled cruise to the Long Term Upper Ocean Study (LOTUS) area centered at 34°N, 70°W. During the cruise three LOTUS moorings (a near-surface and two subsurface moorings) deployed eleven months earlier were recovered and replaced by a nearly identical set of moorings. The new array will remain in the water during the final year of LOTUS field work. The LOTUS surface mooring, scheduled to be recovered during ENDEAVOR 97, had been partially recovered one month earlier after the mooring parted and drifted off station. The lower portion of the surface mooring which went to the bottom when the mooring failed was successfully recovered during ENDEAVOR 97. A new surface mooring replacing the one that parted and a C. S. Draper Labs profiling current meter mooring were also set during the cruise. Non-mooring work included deploying three satellite tracked drifter buoys and completing five CTD stations in the LOTUS area. Several inter-comparisons between shipborne meteorological sensors and similar sensors on the LOTUS surface buoy and the drifter buoys were made. An XBT section was also completed along 70°W between 40°N and 34°N. Part I of this report is a summary of the major cruise activities and part II presents the hydrographic data (CTD and XBT) collected during the cruise.