OSNAP

OSNAP

The Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) is an international program designed to measure the transport of heat, mass, and freshwater in the subpolar North Atlantic and the associated Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and to investigate the AMOC’s variability link to dense water formation variability. It includes contributions from scientists in the U.K., Germany, Netherlands, Canada, France and the U.S. One key component of this program are moored arrays maintained across two lines that cut across the subpolar North Atlantic flow: OSNAP West, from the Labrador coast to the southern tip of Greenland, and OSNAP East from the southern tip of Greenland, across the Reykjanes Ridge, and extending all the way to Scotland.The US-contribution for OSNAP includes moorings SE and SW of Cape Farewell, respectively in the Irminger and Labrador Seas, and the collection of hydrographic and velocity data to provide context to the moored measurements. In addition to the OSNAP objectives, this project also suppors the collection of data for a complementary biogeochemistry program, GOH-SNAP (Gases in the Overturning and Horizontal circulation of the Subpolar North Atlantic Program, Lead PI Jaime Palter, URI) which has added O 2 sensors to the O-SNAP array to quantify O 2 export from the Labrador and Irminger Seas. The data will also be used to empirically model carbon concentrations, and estimate carbon export.