2022 DFO Hydrographic Mission

This mission involves the collection of physical, biological and chemical oceanographic data onboard oceanographic surveys conducted in 3 different geographic regions: Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf and Slope (Maritimes Region AZMP, AZOMP), Newfoundland and Labrador Shelf (Newfoundland and Labrador Region AZMP), and in the Labrador Sea from the Labrador Shelf, Canada to Cape Desolation on the Greenland shelf (AZOMP). Through the collection of an array of physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic data, this mission aims to: Characterize and understand the causes of oceanic variability at the seasonal, inter-annual and decadal scales across the northwest Atlantic. Provide multidisciplinary datasets that can be used to establish relationships among biological, chemical and physical oceanographic variables. Provide quality data for the validation of oceanographic model outputs and calibration of remote-sensed observations from gliders, Argo floats, and satellite imagery. Provide quality data to support sound decision-making on key government priorities such as climate change, marine protected areas, species at risk and fisheries resource management. Recover and re-deploy oceanographic moorings placed in areas to study ocean properties along with movements of marine mammals (NL AZMP). Recover oceanographic moorings located at 53 North in support of the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP), an international effort involving both DFO and WHOI scientists to quantify the subpolar AMOC and its intra-seasonal to inter-annual variability via overturning metrics, including associated fluxes of heat and freshwater (AZOMP).