This station tlierefore served as a key station in referring the dynamic 

 heights of the sliallower stations to the 1,500-decibar surface. The 

 dynamic topography at all levels above the 1,000-decibar surface was 

 similar to that shown in figure 23 for the sea surface. Between about 

 1,000 and 1,500 meters at stations 3990 and 3991 a weak northerly 

 flow was indicated by the dynamic heights with a southerly flow 

 above about 1,000 meters. Figures 24 and 25 show the distribution 

 of temperature and salinity respectively along this section and show 

 maxima of each at about 400 meters at station 3991. The temperature 

 of more than 3° C. and the salinity of more than 34.60 °/oo indicate 

 the West Greenland Current as the source of this water and conse- 

 quently indicate a iiorthward movement here, although at this level 

 the dynamic topography shows a southward movement of about a 

 half a centimeter per second. The results, therefore, of the computa- 

 tions of volume of flow past this section are to be regarded with 

 suspicion and the northward flow, inshore of station 3992, of 0.38 

 million cubic meters per second is considered to be too small, whereas 

 the southward flow, in the upper levels between stations 3990 and 

 3992, of 1.05 million cubic meters per second, is considered to be too 

 large. 



Figure 26 shows the temperature distribution along the vertical 

 section from South "Wolf Island to Cape Farewell found in 1949. On 

 the Labrador shelf, the characteristic temperature minimum of the 

 Labrador Current is present. The tongue of warmer water extending 

 to bottom beneath the Labrador Current at the edge of the shelf is 

 not as warm as usual and only slightly exceeds 3.4° C. This is in 

 agreement with the deficiency of the warmer olfshore part of the 

 Labrador Current anticipated from the subnormal volumes of flow 

 and mean temperatures found in the (jrand Banks region earlier in 

 the year. On the Greenland side the temperature maximum associated 

 with the Irminger Current component of the "West Greenland Cur- 

 rent is decidedly colder than usual and less than 5° C. The tempera- 

 ture minimum of the intermediate water of the Labrador Sea is 

 slightly less than 3.3° C. This is somewhat colder than in 1948, but 

 still warmer than the approximately 3.17° found consistently during 

 the summers of 1934 through 1939. The displacement of this tem- 

 perature minimum toward the Labrador side is considered the result 

 of water from the vicinity of Flemish Cap and the outer margins of 

 the Atlantic Current entering the circulation of the Labrador Sea 

 on the Greenland side. 



The marked deficiency in the Irminger Current component of the 

 West Greenland Current, noted in the discussion of the volume of 

 flow at the Cape Farewell section and above in connection with the 

 lower than usual temperature maximum of the West Greenland 

 Current, can best be shown by consideration of the salinity. Figures 



76 



