OCEANOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS IN THE NORTHERN BAFFIN 



BAY REGION 



24 July-6 August 1970 



by 



ROBIN D. MUENCH* 

 University of Washington 



INTRODUCTION 



An oceanographic survey was carried out 

 from the USCGC WESTWIND (WAGB-281) 

 in the northern Baffin Bay region during 24 

 July-6 August 1970 (fig. 1). This survey, under 

 the auspices of the Bafllin Bay — North Water 

 Project, was coordinated by the Arctic Institute 

 of North America and cooperative among 

 groups from the University of Washington, the 

 United States Coast Guard, Dartmouth College, 

 and McGill University. 



The summer physical oceanography of the 

 northern Baffin Bay region has been discussed 

 by Muench (1971a). The summer 1970 oceano- 

 graphic program was designed to test, insofar 

 as possible, the conclusions of Muench and to 

 obtain detailed synoptic data from areas where 

 data were acquired separately during the sum- 

 mers of 1968 (Muench, 1971b) and 1969 

 (Muench, 1971c). An additional goal was the 

 retrieval of two current meters which had 

 been moored in Smith Sound during the pre- 

 ceding summer (Muench, 1971c). 



SAMPLING PROGRAM 



On 22 July 1970 the scientific personnel 

 boarded the CGC WESTWIND at Thule, Green- 

 land. These personnel included Robin D. 

 Muench, Rick Avis, Joseph Karpen, James 

 Kevin, all from the University of Washington ; 

 Jon Jolly of Jon B. Jolly, Inc., Seattle, Wash.; 

 and Wilson Lewis of McGill University. The 

 WESTWIND was commanded by Capt. J.S. 

 Thuma, United States Coast Guard. 



•Presently at the Institute of Marine Science, University of 

 Alaska, College, Alaska, 99701 



On 24 July Geodyne Model 850 recording 

 current meters were moored 100 m deep at two 

 locations in eastern Lancaster Sound (fig. 1). 

 Oceanographic stations 1-29 were occupied 

 from 24-27 July. On 29-30 July an attempt 

 was made to recover the current meters which 

 had been moored in northern Smith Sound dur- 

 ing the preceding summer. Several attempts to 

 interrogate and trigger the acoustic release on 

 the moored array failed. Dragging for the ar- 

 ray with a length of cable yielded no results. 

 Since positions were accurate to within a few 

 hundred yards, it is probable that the array 

 was no longer present at its original location. 



The remaining oceanographic stations were 

 occupied from 30 July to 6 August. On 6 Au- 

 gust the northernmost of the two current 

 meters moored earlier during the same cruise 

 in Lancaster Sound was recovered but had not 

 functioned. The southern meter was never lo- 

 cated; the presence of icebergs in southeast 

 Lancaster Sound suggests that it may have been 

 broken loose. 



DATA ANALYSIS 



The oceanographic data were obtained using 

 a Bissett-Berman Model 9060 self-contained 

 salinity / temperature / depth recording unit 

 (STD). At least two samples were obtained 

 from Nansen bottles placed on each STD cast 

 except at stations 17, 22, 28, 29, 40, 41, 42, 49, 

 and 54 where this was precluded by shallow 

 depths. On about every fourth STD cast more 

 numerous Nansen samples (as many as 12, 

 depending upon the depth at the station) were 

 obtained. 



Temperature and salinity data from the Nan- 



