History of the Site:

ESTOC was initiated in 1994 about 100 km north of the Canary islands and in 3618 m water depth. Its intention is to create a long time series on an inter- and multidisciplinary basis in order to monitor and help understanding oceanic long-term variability in the North atlantic's subtropical gyre in conjunction with the Bermuda station BATS. It is an open ocean site in the sense that it is located well outside the highly variable eastern boundary with its strong coastal upwelling regime (although interaction with this regime exists), is deep enough to encompass the eastern subtropical North Atlantic's major water masses including the North Atlantic Deep Water (however not the AABW), is windward of the Canary Islands to avoid wake effects of both the major currents and winds (Canary Current and Northeast Trade), and is far enough from coasts and islands (the Selvages 100 km northwards are very small and flat) to serve as reference for satellite images and altimetry. Thus, it is expected that long-term observations at ESTOC represent open-ocean eastern subtropical North Atlantic conditions and variability. Finally, ESTOC is easy to reach by and be serviced with small research vessels.

Parameters measured:

Parameter	Depths measured (m)	Sensor(s) used

Temperature	various	MicroCAT
Salinity	various	MicroCAT
Chl-a		WETLabs FLNTUSB
Nitrate		NAS2 NO3
PAR	-
Dissolved Carbon Dioxide		Sunburst SAMI
POC	-
Sea pressure	various	MicroCAT
Dissolved Oxygen	-
Wave Height	-
Current Profile		ADCP
Turbidity	-

Enhancement/Modifications planned within EuroSITES:

Continuation: Real-time and delayed-mode data on PCO2, Chlorophyll, nutrients and water column physics. (Karstensen et al. 2006): Enhancement: pCO2, O2, near-real time pH.

Contacts:

Principal Investigators: Octavio Llinas Gonzalez, Melchor González Dávila, Magdalena Santana-Casiano

Links to related website(s):

http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/animate/
The ICCM ESTOC pages
and
A pdf in Spanish and English summarising the range of observations made at ESTOC 1994 to 2009
A pdf in Spanish and English of a EuroSITES information sheet

EuroSITES is a FP7 Collaborative Project coordinated by the
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK

Call FP7-ENV-2007-1, grant agreement N° 202955
Sub-Activity 6.4.1. Earth Observation; Monitoring the ocean interior, seafloor, and subseafloor