Paper 1A 



WATER COLUMN THERMAL STRUCTURE ACROSS THE SHELF 

 AND SLOPE SOUTHEAST OF SANDY HOOKr NEW JERSEY^ IN 1976 



Steven K. Cook 



INTRODUCT ION 



The objective of this cooperative program was to identify and 

 describe seasonal and year to year variations of temperature and 

 circulation in the major current regimes of the western tropical 

 Atlantic^ Caribbean Sear Gulf of Mexico^ and western North 

 Atlantic^ utilizing the various ships as inexpensive platforms 

 for the collection of data. 



Ships' routes were selected to obtain regular sampling in the 

 most dynamically active areas of the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 western North Atlantic. The features of principal interest i«/ere 

 the Yucatan Currentr Loop Currents Florida Currents Gulf Stream/ 

 Shelf Water/Slope Water front/ and a cold-water cell in the 

 Middle At lanti c Bight . 



Because 1976 was such an anomalous year both in meteorology and 



oceanography in the Middle Atl?ntic Bight/ a subset of the 1976 



SOOP data/ comprising 18 transects and one surface transect/ was 

 ana lyz ed . 



'Atlantic Environmental Group/ National 

 Service/ NOAA/ Nar r aganset t / PI 02882. 



Marine 



Fisheries 



231 



