ACM11 (Romanche/Chain Fracture Zone component of Deep Basin)

This component of the Deep Basin experiment produced 39 current meter records from 7 moorings. You can view metadata and/or download the records by clicking on links in the table below. A brief description of the experiment also is available. Each current meter record is identified in the table by its depth and the name of the mooring. You may want to look at a map of the array first to see where the moorings were. If you download any of the current meter records you should review the note on file format. From here you can also move up one level to the list of WOCE experiments.

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In all, there were eight moorings (see map), four in the Romanche Fracture Zone (Moorings R1, R2, R3, and R4) and four in the Chain Fracture Zone (Moorings C1, C2, C3, and C4). All moorings except R2 were recovered successfully.

The moorings were instrumented with a mixture of Aanderaa RCM5s and RCM8s. The RCM5s measured speed, direction, and temperature every two hours. The RCM8s measured speed, direction, temperature, and pressure hourly. Every current meter recorded two temperature series (from the same thermistor): one series with a resolution of 0.024 deg C over the range -2 to 21 deg C, and the other with a resolution of 0.008 deg C over a much narrower range. We have included in the database only one temperature series from each instrument; wherever possible we selected the series with the higher resolution.

The dataset is described in detail in the Internal Report LPO 97-01, titled "Campagne Romanche 3", of IFREMER's Laboratoire de Physique des Oceans. Other relevant publications:

Mercier, H., K. Speer, and J. Honnorez (1994): Flow pathways of bottom water through the Romanche and Chain Fracture Zones. Deep-Sea Research, 41(10), 1457-1477.

Speer, K., H. Mercier, M-J. Messias and L. Memery (1994): The Romanche Fracture Zone:blocking and mixing of Arctic and Antarctic waters at the equator. International WOCE Newsletter, 16, 8-11.

Mercier, H. and H. Bryden (1994): Flow of Antarctic Bottom Water over the sill in the Romanche Fracture Zone. International WOCE Newsletter, 17, 9-10.

Bryden, H. and H. Mercier (1995): Control of the deep circulation in the Brazil Basin by the sill in the Romanche Fracture Zone. International WOCE Newsletter, 21, 27-30.

Mercier, H. and P. Morin (1997): Hydrography of the Romanche and Chain Fracture Zones. J. Geophys. Res, 102(C5), 10373-10389.

Mercier, H. and K. Speer (1998): Transport of bottom water in the Romanche Fracture Zone and Chain Fracture Zone. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 28(5), 779-790.

Ferron, B., H. Mercier, K. Speer, A. Gargett and K. Polzin (1998): Mixing in the Romanche Fracture Zone. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 28(10), 1929-1945

Ferron, B., H. Mercier and A. Treguier (2000): Modeling of the bottom water flow through the Romanche Fracture Zone with a primitive equation model - Part 1: dynamics. J. Marine Res., 58(6), 837-862.

Lux, M., H. Mercier and M. Arhan (2001): Interhemispheric exchanges of mass and heat in the Atlantic Ocean in January-March 1993. Deep-Sea Research I, 48(3), 605-638.

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netCDF is a self-documenting format that can be accessed by a variety of software tools. We have included here a Matlab script that can be used to read netCDF current records in an environment that contains the Matlab/netCDF interface created by CSIRO. You can Click here to learn more about netCDF.

We are aware that users who are unfamiliar with netCDF, or who lack software to deal with it, may find the netCDF format more a deterrent than an aid to effective use of the data. We have included in this CDROM set a second disk that is identical to this one, except that the current meter records have OSU's "Stranger" format. The Stranger format, like netCDF, is self-documenting but utilizes the ASCII code. It is easily readable by both humans and computers; you may find it preferable to netCDF.

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