Collaborative research on the Northeast Water Polynya: NEWP92 hydrographic data report. USCGC Polar Sea cruise, July 15--August 15, 1992

Abstract

The Northeast Water Polynya (NEW) off the northeast coast of Greenland was the focus of two cruises aboard the USCGC Polar Sea during the summers of 1992 and 1993. The cruises were supported by the National Science Foundation Arctic Systems Science (ARCSS) program and were part of the Arctic Ocean Science Board`s International Arctic Polynya Program. The Polar Sea cruises were designed as multidisciplinary studies to test hypotheses about the mechanisms of heat, water and carbon flow within and beyond the boundaries of the polynya. Preliminary results of the 1992 study have been described elsewhere. A collection of papers arising from the 1992 cruise have been published in a Special Section of the Journal of Geophysical Research. This data report presents the hydrographic and basic chemical observations made from CTD/Rosette casts during the 1992 cruise. The station positions cruise are plotted in Figure 1. Also included in the report are selected section plots and vertical profiles. A total of 130 CTD casts were made during the cruise, measuring pressure, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and light transmission. Discrete samples were collected in 10-liter, rosette-mounted, Niskin bottles and analyzed, from most casts, for: salinity, dissolved nutrients, dissolved oxygen, anthropogenic halocarbons (e.g., Freon gases), pigments, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen. Suspended particulate matter was analyzed at selected stations and these data were used to calibrate the CTD-transmissometer. Samples were collected from selected stations and depths for tritium and helium analyses, carbonate chemistry, as well as for measurements of bacterial abundance.