This project will investigate physical and biogeochemical conditions above the shelf and fjords along East Greenland. The East Greenland Current transports large amounts of freshwater from the Arctic Ocean, melted sea ice and meltwater from the Greenland Ice Cap along the Greenlandic coast.

CTD-casts, measurements of microstructure turbulence and water samples will be made from bottom to the surface at transects across the shelf and in the fjords along East Greenland. CTD-casts will measure depth, temperature, salinity, oxygen, fluorescence and light conditions in the water column. An underway-CTD will be applied in areas without sea ice and measure temperature and salinity in high spatial resolution (<10 km). Microstructure turbulence measurements contain very high resolution (centimeter scale) profiles of temperature, salinity and vertical shear and will be applied for studying vertical mixing in the water column. Water samples of nutrients, dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity and oxygen isotopes will be collected for quantifying the oceanic CO2-uptake, the amount and source of meltwater in the upper ocean and for analyzing water mass distributions along the shelf.

PI: Jørgen Bendtsen

Fieldwork area: Fjords and coastal and shelf areas along East Greenland.

Link to Isaaffik website