Brief Cruise Summary
After completion of the previous cruise 35/4, the R/V Meteor reached Hamilton, Bermuda, on June 4, and Detlev Schulz-Bull (IfMK) relieved Dieter Meischner (University of Gottingen, Germany) as chief scientist. A reception for invited officials of governmental and scientific institutions as well as private companies was held on board the Meteor on June 4. The scientific party of cruise 36/1 embarked on June 5. Equipment setup began on the same day. The R/V Meteor departed Hamilton at 9:00 a.m. local time on June 6, 1996.
The cruise track of cruise 36/1 (Fig. 1) ran on straight lines from Bermuda to the Flemish Cap off Newfoundland, Canada, and then to Gran Canaria, Spain. The turning point was located at 46° 40' N, 41° 54' W. All seven underway pCO2 systems were operated simultaneously for most of the time between June 7 and June 17. Small technical problems that occurred to some of the systems only caused short interruptions. Only one system suffered heavy damage in the infrared gas analyzer and it had to quit measurements by June 14. The two underway spectrophotometric pH systems were operated throughout the cruise. The newly modified coulometric SOMMA system for underway determination of CT was tested successfully at sea and contributed about 450 high-quality underway CT measurements along the cruise track (Johnson et al. 1998). Synchronized with the XBT survey, a total of 57 discrete samples were taken from the seawater supply and were analyzed for pH, CT, and AT. The discrete fCO2 measurements could not be carried out on the same schedule; samples were taken for this parameter only at about 17 stations.
In addition to the various surface measurements (whether continuous or discrete), five hydrographic stations were occupied during the cruise. Samples were drawn for measurements of all four CO2 system parameters (pH, fCO2, CT, AT) thus yielding the highest possible overdetermination of the marine CO2 system. The R/V Meteor arrived at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, on June 19, 1996. Weather and sea conditions had been excellent throughout the cruise allowing for uninterrupted scientific work.
