March '97 Summary Cruise Narrative Science Party List Browse SeaSoar Sections

The primary goal of this cruise was to make observations of processes which may remove shelf water and associated biota from the southern flank of Georges Bank. We also planned to redeploy a mooring which had been part of Ron Schlitz's array examining recirculation in the southwest corner of the bank. Priority was given to obtaining observations of interactions between Gulf Stream rings and the shelf break front. Prior to sailing, satellite imagery revealed a warm core ring sitting southeast of the bank, but through the course of the cruise, it remained too far south to participate in removing water from the shelf. The imagery also revealed an intrusion of cold water originating on the Scotian Shelf, crossing the Northeast Channel and extending southwestward along the southern flank of Georges Bank. In an effort to examine storm-induced cross-shelf transport, the region surrounding the intrusion and the shelf-break front was extensively sampled before and after the passage of a strong storm system. Following the pre- and post-storm surveys in the southeastern region of the bank, we detoured to recover Jim Irish's Northeast Peak mooring, which had broken loose during one of the storms. We then returned to the southwest corner of the bank and occupied a pair of survey lines paralleling the southern leg of Ron Schlitz's moored array.