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Research Objectives:
During each crossing of the research ship Laurence M. Gould, we intend to launch expendable bathythermographs (XBTs), supplemented by expendable conductivity-depth-temperature (XCDT) probes, to obtain high-density sections from which to study the seasonal variability and long-term change in the upper ocean structure of the Drake Passage, which is off the tip of South America. Whenever the distance between Antarctica and neighboring land is narrow, as in the Drake Passage and the area off the Cape of Good Hope, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which drives the waters in the Southern Ocean, is extremely strong.
The information we gather will lead to the establishment of a high-quality database that can be used to study the magnitude and depth of penetration of the seasonal signals, the connections to atmospheric forcing, and the effects of interannual variations such as those associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave.
The sections obtained during these voyages will supplement the approximately 20 sections that we have been gathering and studying since September 1996. Our continuing data analysis will be carried out in cooperation with the Argentine Antarctic Institute in Buenos Aires.
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