POMME - Programme Océan Multidisciplinaire Méso Echelle. CAMPAGNE POMME T0. Rapport de Données Eulériennes (Volume 1)

One of the key processes of the ocean circulation and large scale air-sea interaction is water mass formation. In the north Atlantic, the upper ocean circulation brings warm waters to higher latitudes, where vigorous cooling leads, during the winter, to the formation of deep mixed layers (up to several hundred meters deep). As these newly formed water masses are advected and spread southward they are overlaid during the spring and summer by warmer water. Thus they lose contact with the atmosphere and become part of ocean circulation as intermediate water. This succession of events constitute subduction. The newly formed water mass is typically of low potential vorticity (nearly homogeneous), with characteristics imparted by the local prevailing air sea fluxes during the cooling phase. The program POMME is a major experiment (several cruises, various observational techniques, modelling) whose aims include the understanding of the role of air sea fluxes and mesoscale processes in the formation, subduction and spreading of the subpolar mode water in the north east Atlantic. During the cruise POMME0, several fixed points moorings have been set to observe the current, temperature and salinity structure, with currentmeters, T/S sensors and acoustic tomography. A surface meteorological mooring has also been set at the centre of the study area. A network of hydrographic stations has been covered to observe the physical and biological properties at the initial conditions for the studies to be conducted during the subsequent cruises. This report shows the temperature, salinity and current serials obtained on the 5 moorings deployed for 13 months.