CHART OF CONSTANT CURRENTS IN THE 



NORWEGIAN AND GREENLAND SEAS 



A . P . Alekseev and B . V . Istoshln 



TTie earliest information which we possess on the constant currents of the Norwegian and 

 Greenland Seas is found in a chart made by the German geographer Petermann in 1857. In 1887, 

 the Norwegian physicist Mohn charted the current lines for the Norwegian, Greenland and Barents 

 Seas on the basis of an analysis of observations made during an exploration on the vessel "Foringen" . 

 This map, which in Itself is not without interest, shows the currents in the Greenland Sea in posi- 

 tions totally different than their true positions. Thus, Mohn represents the warm Spitsbergen 

 stream as coming from the Barents Sea throu^ the channel between Bear Island and Spitsbergen. 



TTie next stage in the research, which considerably enlarged our knowledge of the currents 

 In the Norwegian and Greenland Seas, is represented by the voyages of the Norwegian ship "M. 

 Sara". From their observations, B. Helland-Hansen and F . Nansen were able to draw a theoret- 

 ical chart of the currents in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas, and this chart is still of value 

 today. 



The Great October Socialist Revolution, which laid the foundations for an intensive study of 

 the North by Russian expeditions and vessels, has also played a decisive role in the investigation 

 of the Norwegian and Greenland Seas . One of the first decrees of the Soviet after gaining power 

 was to set up a Floating Marine Institute on the "Persey" , which carried out a great deal of re- 

 search work in the northern seas. V. A. Berezkin (1) collated the observations of the expeditions 

 on the "Persey", the "N. Knipovich" and the "Sadko" and drew the first dynamic current charts for 

 the Greenland Sea . 



Following the great oceanographlc survey carried out in 1939 by the Arctic Institute on the 

 "Sibiryakov", similar charts for the Norwegian and Greenland Seas were compiled by V. T. 

 Timofeev (3). 



Whereas all, or almost all, the Soviet research on currents in the Norwegian and the 

 Greenland Seas up to World War H was concerned with the solution of general oceanographlc prob- 

 lems, since 1945 investigations directed towards guaranteeing the expansion of the herring indus- 

 try with the aid of essential information on the distribution of water masses and the velocity and 

 direction of currents have been beginning to take first place . 



What was sufficient for a general understanding of the circulation of water masses in a sea 

 or ocean could not satisfy practical demands. It is well known that the life of the Atlantic herring 

 is closely bound up with the system of warm currents and with the "polar front" —'zones. Further- 

 more, a knowledge of the currents is essential for the correct deployment of drifter fleets as well 

 as for navigation . It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this last factor in view 

 of the enormous size of the Soviet herring fleet . 



Thus , the herring industry could not be carried on effectively without detailed knowledge of 

 the currents . 



In 1946, the Polar Institute embarked upon large-scale hydrological work, in addition to re- 



1/ "Polar front" (Knipovich /27) is the zone in which the warm and cold waters meet, i.e. 

 the zone of convergence . 



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