RV Ronald H. Brown Cruise RB0901, 15 Apr-06 May 2009. RAPID Mooring Cruise Report

This report describes the mooring operations conducted during RV Ronald H. Brown cruise RB0901 between 15 April and 5 May 2009. These mooring operations were completed as part of the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded RAPID-WATCH Programme to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5°N. The primary purpose on this cruise for the UK team was to service the RAPID Western Boundary moorings while the US team worked on the Western Boundary Time Series project. Cruise RB0901 was from Charleston, South Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina and covered the Western Boundary moorings deployed on cruises SJ08 and RB0701. This cruise was the seventh annual refurbishment of the Western Boundary section of an array of moorings deployed across the Atlantic in order to continuously observe the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC). This array will be further refined and refurbished during subsequent years. The instruments deployed on the array consist 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 26.5°N. (http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/rapid)