OSNAP Temperature Salinity and Velocity Climatology
Description
OSNAP is designed to provide a continuous record of the full-water column, trans-basin fluxes of heat, mass and freshwater in the subpolar North Atlantic. It consists of two legs: one extending from southern Labrador to the southwestern tip of Greenland across the mouth of the Labrador Sea (OSNAP West), and the second from the southeastern tip of Greenland to Scotland (OSNAP East). The observing system also includes subsurface floats (OSNAP Floats) in order to trace the pathways of overflow waters in the basin and to assess the connectivity of currents crossing the OSNAP line. The location of the OSNAP East and West legs purposefully melds with a number of long-term observational efforts in the North Atlantic: the Canadian repeat AR7W program in the Labrador Sea; the German Labrador Sea western boundary array at 53°N; the global Ocean Observatories Initiative node to be placed in the southwestern Irminger Sea; the repeat A1E/AR7E hydrographic sections across the Irminger and Iceland basins; and the Ellett line in the Rockall region. Importantly, this observing system, in conjunction with the RAPID/MOCHA array at 26ºN and the EU THOR/NACLIM program, will provide a comprehensive measure of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and provide a means to evaluate intergyre connectivity in the North Atlantic. OSNAP is a collaborative effort, which includes several countries including US, Canada, China, France, Germany, Netherlands and the UK.
Source
Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) website
Release Policy
Acknowledgment: OSNAP data were collected and made freely available by the OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) project and all the national programs that contribute to it (www.o-snap.org).