* Scientific NEWS *
First announcement for the final joint conference of the projects EU THOR and BMBF North Atlantic
Monday 24-Wednesday 26 September 2012
Topic
North Atlantic Climate Variability
Location: Hamburg, Germany.
First announcement
The text of the announcement can be donwloaded here.
Abstract submission
Scientists are invited to submit an abstract on one of the following themes:
- Observation Systems
- Natural Variability
- Key Processes
- Predictability
- Coastal Impacts
Submit an abstract (10-15 lines) to thor.eu@zmaw.de
Clearly indicating which theme it is applicable to.
Submission deadline
1 May 2012
Rooms reservation
A number of rooms has been reserved for the participants. Please see this list.
We suggest you to book as soon as possible, considered that the city is hosting a great number of events in this period and finding a hotel room in the very last minute would be very difficult and expensive.
Technical report on THOR ADCP Deployments in Faroese Waters 2010 - 2011
The HAVSTOVAN technical report is now available for download here.
Authors: Ebba Mortensen, Karin Margretha H. Larsen, Bogi Hansen, Regin Kristiansen, and Svein Østerhus
HAVSTOVAN NR.: 12-01 TECHNICAL REPORT Tórshavn · Published in January 2012
This report documents nine ADCP deployments in Faroese waters in 2010 – 2011. Aanderaa Current Meters are included in two, and Microcats in two of the deployments. The deployments are listed in Table 1. Each deployment is identified by an 8-character label where the first four characters indicate the site (Fig. 1) while the last characters show year and month of deployment. Most of the moorings were located at standard (Nordic WOCE) sites.
Tests of the subsurface telemetry systems
In WP5.1 we design and test technology that enable us to retrieve data from moored instrumentation, but without the need to recover the moorings. Such system will enable and prolong mooring deployments, will still allow for scientific data analysis, and a enable a "data backup".
- One system uses underwater acoustic to read out data from instrumentation. This is the Bergen System, developed through collaboration between University of Bergen and Aanderaa Data Instruments. The system has been tested in the Faroe Bank Channel - also in collaboration with Faroe Marine Research Institute.
- The other system, the Kiel System, developed through collaboration between IFM-GEOMAR and OPTIMARE, uses expendable messenger buoys (PopUp buoys) to download and communicate the data to shore.
Here you find movies from a test deployment of the PopUp system in the western Baltic at a place known as "Boknis Eck" http://www.ifm-geomar.de/index.php?id=bokniseck
The test deployment mooring consisted of a concrete anchor that was lowered to the seafloor at about 20m water depth. The anchor connected to the PopUp central unit and with 4 expendable PopUp buoys (Movie 1) with a steel chain. Further up six glass spheres provided an ascending force to the construction, to hold it upright in the water and towards the surface (Movie 2). We tested how to handle the system on board a ship and how the system behaved as being part of a mooring. The release of the PopUp buoys was also tested later (Movie 3).
(J. Karstensen, IFM-GEOMAR)
RV METEOR Cruise M85-2 St. John's Reykjavik Summary cruise report (Aug. 5- Aug. 25, 2011)
The Meteor M85/2 expedition was carried out jointly by the IFM-GEOMAR at the University of Kiel and the Institut für Meereskunde at the KlimaCampus of the University of Hamburg. The main objectives of the cruise were related to studies on water mass transformation processes and transports in the northern North Atlantic.
Chief Scientist: Johannes Karstensen
Captain: Michael Schneider
The cruise report is now available to download
RV Pelagia Shipboard Report (July. 24 - Aug. 8, 2011)
The research cruise 64PE342 of RV Pelagia was carried out by THOR partner NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research).
Goals: The re-survey of former WOCE Hydrographic Program Repeat Section
A1/AR7E between Ireland and the recovery and redeployment of a long term
mooring in the Irminger Sea as part of the EU THOR programme.
Chief Scientist: Hendrik M. van Aken
The Cruise Report is now available to download
Faroe Bank Channel Overflow still goes strong
2010-12-06
New technical reports on ADCP deployments in Faroe Bank Channel (FBC) are released from Faroe Marine Research Institute (HAV). The reports document nine ADCP deployments in Faroese waters in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 respectively. Aanderaa Current Meters are included in two, and Microcats in two of the
deployments. Each deployment is identified by an 8-character label where the first four characters indicate the site while the last characters show year and month of deployment. Most of the moorings were located at standard (Nordic WOCE) sites... click on the report to view more details:
TecRep 2009-2010 | TeRep 2008-2009
02 July - 02 August 2010, METEOR in its research cruise M82-1
click on the track to read the WEEKLY BRIEFING (in German only)
THOR in press (German) | WELT online 2010-07-05
Im Nordatlantik wird auch die Zukunft der hiesigen Bauern erforscht
Wissenschaftler auf dem gerade gestarteten Hamburger Forschungsschiff "Meteor" untersuchen den Austausch von Wassermassen und dessen Klimaeinflüsse (von Gisela Schütte) (mehr...)
- 17 Jun 2010
- 17 Jun 2010
- 18 Jun 2010
- 18 Jun 2010
- 18 Jun 2010
Fotos © Andreas Dibiasi
- 18-19 June 2010, Open-Ship in Hamburg
- Fig. 1
METEOR M82
METEOR cruise M82 consists of two legs to be carried out in the subpolar North Atlantic dealing with the circulation and transport variations of deep water, as well as one leg focusing on the hydrothermal system at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the Azores. (fig. 1) Processes to be investigated are related to different disciplines of marine sciences such as physical and chemical oceanography, biogeochemistry, hydrothermal processes, petrology, chemistry of fluids and microbial ecology.
Fig. 1: Planned cruise tracks and working areas of METEOR M 82
Leg M 82/1 | 02.07 - 02.08.2010
The overflow water flowing across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge sinks south of the sill down to depths of approximately 3000 m. Thereby, less dense ambient water is mixed into the sinking overflow plume, by small scale processes and vortex formation, approximately doubling its volume transport. During the first part of this cruise leg the long term observations of the overflow volume transport with moorings will be extended; in the Denmark Strait itself and also 500 km further south off Angmassalik. Other programme points are small scale mixing studies and the exchange of moorings in the southern Irminger Sea, which are used to estimate the water mass formation and transformation there.
About one third of the North Atlantic Deep water is formed in the Labrador Sea. The variability of the production rate and of the export are linked to the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) and short time scale variabilities are not de-coupled by topographically barriers. In order to determine the fluctuations of this contribution to the thermohaline circulation it is important to continuously measure the formation and export rates of the Labrador Sea Water (LSW). Core activities during the second part of this leg are therefore detailed CTDO2 station work accompanied by current observations on station (lowered ADCP) and underway (shipboard ADCP) as well as the exchange of moorings in the boundary current at the Labrador shelf break and in the convection area in the central Labrador Sea. This is a continuous activity (since 1996) providing long time series of water mass transformation and export.
Fig. 2: Bold lines indicate CTDO2-lADCP sections. Points show the positions of moorings to be serviced
Download the Cruise Brochure
THOR Cruise planned at MRI Island in the second half of August 2010
More coming soon.
Contact person: Hedinn Valdimarsson at hv(at)hafro.is
RV Pelagia (Sept. 22 - Oct. 15, 2009)
The research cruise 64PE312 of RV Pelagia was carreid out by THOR partner NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) surveying the AR7E section from Greenland to Ireland, including servicing a mooring in the central Irminger Sea. The Cruise Report is now available to download
FRV Scotia (October 1st - 20th, 2009)
The FRV Scotia is a research vessel of Marine Scotland, formerly the Scottish Fisheries Research Services. Some of the work to be undertaken during the trip feeds into THOR WP 3 "Observation of the North Atlantic THC" and will be jointly carried out by THOR's subcontractor Marine Scotland, partners SAMS UK and KNMI Netherlands.
Click here to view the trip blog ...
Cruise Report on RV MARIA S. MERIAN
2009-07-13
In the present state of our climate the northern North Atlantic is one of the major sources for the deep waters of the World Oceans and thus influences or even determines the global deep ocean circulation. Dense water from the Nordic Seas and the Labrador Sea move southward at depth and is replenished near the surface by a northward flow of
warm water. During RV MARIA S MERIAN cruise MSM12-1 we studied the three major sources of North Atlantic Deep Water: the overflow through Denmark Strait, the
entrainment of ambient waters into the overflow plume and the production and export of deep water from the Labrador Sea... read more
Posters on research results can be viewed here
THOR on Tour
MARIA S. MERIAN | 2009.05.13 - 2009.06.15 
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Leg MSM12/1 | During the cruise (Ponta Delgada-Reykjavik) the research team led by Professor Detleft Quadfasel from the Institute of Oceanography of University of Hamburg plans to study three major sources of North Atlantic Deep Water: the production and export of deep water from the Labrador Sea, the Overflow through Denmark Strait and the environment of ambient waters into the overflow plume. The work focuses on the recovery and redeployment of long-term current meter moornings, but synoptic hydrographic work is done as well. The major part of this research tour is funded by the North Atlantic project of the Ministry of Science and Technology in Germany and the EU project THOR.
The weekly briefing (German version only) on MSM 12/1 Pt. Delgada - Reykjavik is now available to download:
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05-11 | 05-18 | 05-25 | 06-02 | 06-09 | 06-15 |
Click here to read more about Maria S. Merian Cruise. The scientific programme of Leg MSM 12 can be viewed in page 13-16.
"THOR" oder das Überleben des Golfstroms 
Hamburg/Programm zur Europawahl 05.2009
Herausgeber: Europa-Union Hamburg Landesverband Hamburg e.v.