METEOR M148/1

During the research cruise on FS Meteor in May/June 2018 it is planned to carry out a physical oceanography study in the tropical South Atlantic at 11°S and in the eastern boundary upwelling region off Angola. The cruise combines the foci of the BMBF collaborative projects “Southwest African Coastal Upwelling System and Benguela Niños II (SACUS)” and “Regional Atlantic Circulation and Global Change (RACE II)”. The major goals of the cruise are (1) to quantify the variability of eastern boundary current transports and the variability of the advection of anomalous water masses along the eastern boundary in conjunction with wave propagation along the coastal wave guides; (2) carry out a 4-day process study to elucidate the mechanism sustaining upwelling off Angola during the austral win-ter season; and (3) to determine the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circu-lation at 11.5°S.
The working programme involves the recovery and redeployment of moorings and bottom shields off Angola, deployments and recoveries of autonomous observatories (Gliders), microstructure measurements, and hydrographic sampling along 4 transects in the central and eastern tropical South Atlantic. Salinity, oxygen and nutrient concentrations as well as their isotopic composition will be determined from water samples.
Continuous underway observations will be carried out with the thermosalinograph to measure temperature and salinity as well as trace gas concentrations (N2O, CO, O2 CO2) at the sea surface. Ocean velocity in the upper 1000m will also be continouly measured using the two shipboard ADCPs (OS 38kHz, OS 75kHz).
In addition to the scientific program, a ca-pacity building program for scientists and graduate students from our African and other international project partner institutes will be carried out.