History of the Site:

Having performed daily oceanographic measurements in the deep Norwegian Sea since 1 October 1948, Ocean Weather Ship Station (OWS) Mike, at 66N, 2E, can present the longest existing homogeneous time series from the deep ocean. Station M is located at the eastern margin of the Norwegian Sea deep basin where a branch of the Atlantic current is entering the area. The location has proved to be strategic both for studying the Atlantic inflow and the Norwegian Sea Deep Water. The OWS M was operated by The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (DNMI) and the hydrographic programme was carried out by Geophysical Institute, the University of Bergen. Until June 2009 Station Mike was operated as a manned weather ship, laterly the 'Polar Front'.

During the EuroSITES programme, Station M has trialled moorings with autonomous sensors to replace the weather ship water samples. This included a mooring deployed in 2008 with a McLance profiler with CTD and O2 optodes at 50 and 2000 m. In February 2010, a new configuration sub-surface (700-2000m) mooring was deployed funded by Research Council of Norway. In Spring 2011 a full depth mooring with a surface buoy and meteorological package will be deployed. A lander element on the sea floor is also planned pending funding. Click HERE to view a diagram of the proposed 2011 observatory.

Parameters measured:

Full-depth mooring with surface buoy and some meteorological and ocean measurements will be deployed in Spring 2011

Sub-surface: New configuration since February 2010

Parameter	Depths measured (m)	Sensor	Frequency

Temperature	700, 800, 1000, 1200,1500, 2000 m	Sea Bird MC and AADI RCM9	1hr
Salinity	700, 800, 1000, 1200,1500, 2000 m	Sea Bird MC and AADI RCM10	1hr
Dissolved Oxygen	700, 1200, 200m	AADI Optode	1hr
Current	700, 1200, 2000m	AADI RCM9	1hr

Enhancement/Modifications planned within EuroSITES:

Continuation: Weekly sampling from the Weather ship “Polarfront” for water column physics and nutrients. Maintenance of existing delivery schedule of real time data on continuous surface hydrography and dissolved oxygen data.
Enhancement: mooring with autonomous sensors to measure physics, nitrate and fluorescence. EuroSITES funds have already supported the development, testing and deployment of a sub-surface mooring equipped with physical measurement sensors (temperature and conductivity) to 2000 m and oxygen optodes at 50 and 2000m. In 2008 a hydrographic winch was installed with surface temperature, salinity and oxygen for the first time in near real-time. AWith the loss of the weather ship in 2009, a sub-surface mooring was deployed in February 2010 with plans for a full-depth mooring in 2011.

Contacts:

Principal Investigator: Svein Østerhus. Nordic WOCE Project Office, Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Allégt. 70, N-5007 Bergen, Norway E-mail: svein.osterhus@gfi.uib.no
Data managers: Ingunn Skjelvan (BCCR), Fransisco Rey (IMR)

Links to related websites:

http://www.fou.uib.no/fd/1997/f/406001/
High Wind Air-Sea Exchanges a UK-SOLAS project http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/ooc/CRUISES/HiWASE

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