RRS Discovery Cruises 277/278, RAPID mooring cruise report, February - March 2004

This report describes the mooring operations conducted during RRS Discovery Cruises D277 and D278. These cruises were conducted between 26 February 2004 and 30 March 2004, as part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded RAPID Programme to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5N. Cruise D277 was from Tenerife to the Bahamas with participants from the Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC), with cruise D278 a barter cruise also involving participants from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), University of Miami. An array of moorings were deployed across the Atlantic in order to set up a pre-operational prototype system to continuously observe the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC). This array will be refined and refurbished during subsequent years. The deployed mooring array consisted of 19 moorings from the SOC, with 3 from the RSMAS. Moorings are focused at the Eastern and Western boundaries, along with a grouping at the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The instruments deployed on the array consists of a variety of current meters, bottom pressure recorders and CTD loggers which, combined with time series measurements of the Florida Channel Current and wind stress estimates, will be used to determine the strength and structure of the MOC at 26.5N.