port of the West Greenland Current off Cape Farewell was found to 

 be 6.1 during the postseason survey. This was made up of an East 

 Greenland Current component of 3.3 and an Irminger Current com- 

 ponent of 2.8. In comparison with the seasonal normals shown in 

 figure 28 the total volume transport was 0.4 greater than normal, the 

 excess being supplied by the East Greenland Current component while 

 the Irminger Current component was normal. The mean tempera- 

 ture of 4.26° was nearly normal and the heat transport of 25.95 was 

 1.43 above normal. The net volume transport across the section 

 above 1,500 decibars, from the beach at South Wolf Island, Labrador, 

 to the beach at Cape Farewell, Greenland, was computed as 1.5 

 northwesterly. 



By running a longitudinal section from the Labrador Sea across 

 Davis Strait ridge into BafRn Bay it was hoped to derive the volume 

 transport of the westward branching of the West Greenland Current 

 south of Davis Strait and the eastward branching of the Baffin Land 

 Current north of Davis Strait. It was also hoped that the section 

 from Loks Land to Fyllas Bank would give, on its western side, the 

 sum of the volume transport of the Baffin Land Current transiting 

 Davis Strait plus the contribution from the West Greenland Current ; 

 and on its eastern side the West Greenland Current prior to loss from 

 westward branching. Similarly it was hoped that the section from 

 Cape Kater to the Nugssuak Peninsula in Baffin Bay would give the 

 volume transports of the Baffin Land Current prior to loss from 

 eastward branching and the West Greenland Current transiting Davis 

 Strait plus the contribution from the Baffin Land Current. Such a 

 concept of the current pattern in the vicinitj^ of Davis Strait is prob- 

 ably an oversimplification of the characteristic pattern. With the 

 saddle depth of the threshold in Davis Strait of the order of 700 

 meters or less, the bathymetry may be expected to have a pronounced 

 effect on the current pattern. The bathymetry, while not known in 

 detail, is not simple and the banks along the Greenland shelf south of 

 Davis Strait no doubt add to the complexities of the characteristic 

 circulation pattern. 



The surface currents sketched in figure 32 suggest a complicated 

 pattern. Using the same reference surface the resulting volume 

 transports cannot be reconciled. Thus, the West Greenland Current 

 at the Fyllas Bank section has a volume transport of 0.9, its westward 

 branching crossing the longitudinal section south of Davis Strait 

 amounts to 0.5 leaving, by difference, 0.4 transiting Davis Strait 

 into Baffin Bay where it would be joined by 1.6 representing the east- 

 ward branching of the Baffin Land Current north of Davis Strait for 

 a total of 2.0 ; yet the northward flow past the section off the Nugssuak 

 Peninsula is only 0.5. A similar discrepancy is apparent if volume 

 transports along the Baffin Island side are considered. Here the 

 Baffin Land Current off Cape Kater was 2.2 of which 1.6 branched 



695-672 0-64-5 57 



