b. Polar Water as defined in this report was frequently encountered. 

 Mixing of this water mass with Arctic Bottom Water did not appear 



to be taking place, as is to be expected since Polar Water was found 

 only in the upper layers. 



c. Most of the Arctic Bottom Water was warmer than -0.98°C indicating 

 that the EDISTO stations were too far north to include the 'core' 



of the bottom water formed in the Greenland Sea Gyre. 



d. The wide range of temperatures in the Atlantic Water indicates 

 that it gives up a good deal of its heat to the atmosphere because 

 surface cooling is the most likely process which could cause a great 

 reduction in temperature without causing a fairly large salinity 

 change. 



2. Temporal Variation Diagrams. 



Stations 1 and 50 were occupied at approximately the same location 

 but two weeks apart. Consequently, comparison of salinity, temperature, 

 and density data from the two stations (Fig. 6) yields useful information 

 concerning temporal variations in water properties. 



Density changes in the upper 100 meters were relatively small 

 compared to the salinity and temperature differences. This indicates 

 that the salinity and temperature changes compensated for each other, 

 to a certain extent, as far as density was concerned. 



Large temporal variations should be expected in the upper layers 

 of the water column at this location because the properties of the 

 upper layers will be modified not only by variations in the West 

 Spitsbergen Current and by climatic factors, but also by variations 

 in the continuation of the cold and dilute East Spitsbergen Current 

 and changes in the temperature and volume of runoff from Svalbard. 



3. Vertical Sections. 



Because temperature and concentration gradients were more pronounced 

 in the upper layers of the water column, the vertical sections (Figs. 

 7 though 11) were drawn with a divided depth scale. The vertical 

 exaggeration above 300 meters is about 350 to 1, four times greater 

 than for the rest of the water column. Since the oceanographic stations 

 were numbered consecutively in the order in which they were occupied, 

 a large numerical difference between adjacent stations in a section 

 indicates that they were separated by a relatively large time interval. 

 This should be taken into account when interpreting the sections 

 because they were contoured just as if the data were synoptic. 



Certain gross features are common to most of the sections. These 

 include: 



12 



