relationship so that one must get farther into the North Atlantic 

 eddy to find the boundary criterion of 34.95°/oo at 6°. 



Figure 20, presented earlier in illustration of the interpretation of 

 the volume transports found at various sections of the Labrador 

 Current, also shows schematically the circulation in part of the 

 Labrador Sea as deduced from the observations made during the post- 

 season cruise. Figure 37 shows the dynamic topography of the sea 

 surface during the 1953 postseason cruise, in the vicinity of the section 

 from South Wolf Island, Labrador, to Cape Farewell, Greenland. 

 Figure 38 shows the temperature distribution along this section and 

 figure 39 shows the salinity distribution along the Greenland end of 

 this section. 



The dynamic topography shown in figure 37 has a pattern similar 

 to that found in 1952, with the Labrador Current having two bands 

 separated by the shoal off Hamilton Inlet, and with the possibility of 

 a cyclonic eddy offshore of the outermost band and located between 

 it and what appears to be the northwestwardmost margins of the 

 North Atlantic eddy. As the water in the margin of the North 

 Atlantic eddy moved eastward it again was joined on the Greenland 

 side by water recurving from the West Greenland Current. 



Inspection of figure 38 gives some verification of this interpretation 

 of the circulation. The temperature minimum at about 150 meters at 

 stations 5290 and 5291 is an indication that this northward moving 

 water was associated with the Labrador Current and has recurved 

 somewhere southeastward of this section. Farther seaward the 

 warmer temperatures at station 5292 support the identification of this 

 water as being the northwestern margin of the North Atlantic eddy. 

 At station 5295 the temperature maximum of more than 4° indicates 

 that this water has recurved from the warm West Greenland Current 

 somewhere northwestward of this section. Elsewhere in figure 38 the 

 frigid part of the Labrador Current is to be seen over the shelf and the 

 warmer offshore part of the Labrador Current, derived from the West 

 Greenland Current, is defined by the 3.4° isotherm at stations 5287 

 and 5288. The temperature minimum in the intermediate water in 

 the central part of the section, with a temperature of about 3.25°, was 

 about the mean of the warmer years. During the 7 years 1934-39 

 and 1950 this minimum was about 3.17° and during the 7 years 

 1940-41, 1948-49, and 1951-53 the minimum was about 0.10° to 

 0.15° warmer. The gap in the observations 1942-47 makes it difficult 

 to compare the 8-year series of prewar observations with the 6-year 

 postwar series. In figure 38 the temperature maximum below this 

 minimum is defined by the 3.3° and 3.4° isotherms at about the 

 2,000-meter level. It is interesting to note that the intermediate 

 minimum and the underlying maximum are still present when the 

 temperatures in situ are converted to potential temperatures. Within 

 the West Greenland Current the cross sectional area with a tempera-: 



84 



