Oceonographic work of the United States Coast Guard in the Western North Atlantic in 1941

Abstract

The ice‐season of 1941 was similar to that of 1940 in that there was an almost complete absence of ice in the vicinity of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. For this reason no ice‐observation cruises were made by the patrol‐cutters and only the oceanographic vessel of the International Ice Patrol Force was engaged in operations in this region during 1941. This vessel, the 125‐foot U.S.C.G. Cutter General Greene, made three current‐surveys of the Grand Banks region during the period from March 29 to July 14. From these surveys three dynamic topographic charts were constructed. In this work 195 oceanographic stations were occupied, the serial observations of temperature and salinity usually extending from the surface to a depth of about 1,400 meters where the depth of water permitted, although the topographic charts were referred to the 1,000‐decibar surface. A short post‐season cruise was made in the southern part of the Labrador Sea between July 21 and August 3. During this cruise 12 oceanographic stations with closely spaced observational levels, from the surface to a depth of 150 meters, were occupied in the immediate vicinity of an iceberg off the Strait of Belle Isle. An additional 24 stations were occupied, from the surface to as near bottom as was practicable, along a section from South Wolf Island, Labrador, to Cape Farewell, Greenland. A list of 267 sonic soundings taken along this section during the postseason cruises of 1940 and 1941 has been corrected, tabulated, and supplied to the United States Hydrographic Office. Other incidental data collected, both during the season and post‐season cruises, consisted of barograms and sea‐water‐surface thermograms. On all cruises a program of bathythermograph observations supplemented the usual reversing‐thermometer observations of temperature, through cooperation with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with GILBERT OAKLEY of that Institution as observer.