Second Oceanographic Survey 



Grand Bank marked the motion of 

 the Labrador Current. The buoy 

 surface temperature reveals no 

 significant thermal stnjcture, with 

 readings mainly in the 2-5°C 

 range. The remaining two buoys 

 exhibited a weak southwestward 

 flow to the southwest of the eddy. 



Figure C-11 Temperature (a) and 

 (b) salinity distribution along 

 the north-south hydrographic 

 section marked on Figure C-9. 

 The letters B and C mark the 

 approximate locations of SLAR 

 detected fronts. 



Although abbreviated, the second 

 oceanographic survey, together 

 with the associated buoy tracks, 

 supports the intrepretation of the 9 

 May imagery as a warm core 

 eddy. The dynamic topography of 

 the 58 dbar surface relative to 

 1000 dbar (Figure C-15) shows 

 that the SLAR imagery defined all 

 but the western eddy twundary. 

 As before, the area of high radar 

 return was coincident with the 

 warm water of the eddy. A 

 temperature section (Figure C-16) 

 through the eddy reveals down- 

 ward sloping of the isotherms and 

 the existence of a narrow and 

 shallow core of cold water north 

 of the eddy. 



The three buoys released in the 

 eddy (Figure C-17) started an 

 anticyclonic circuit of the eddy. 

 Two were recovered (as duplicat- 

 ing effort); the third remained in 

 the eddy. North of the eddy, buoy 

 4542 rrwved rapidly ( 70 cm/s) 

 eastward within the Labrador 

 Cun'ent. On this occasion, how- 

 ever, it turned to the north before 

 reaching 46°W. 



Both the dynamic topography and 

 the motion of buoy 4542 in the 

 cold core of the Labrador Current 

 support the interpretation of the 

 striations observed in the SLAR 

 imagery north of the eddy as flow 

 lines oriented parallel to the flow 

 direction. 



