VEINS: Inverted Echo Sounders in the Denmark Strait, as part of FS Valdivia Cruise 173, August 13, 1998 – September 2, 1998
The overflow of cold dense water from the Denmark Strait is one of the key elements of the north Atlantic thermohaline circulation and has important consequences for global climate change. It is important to measure the transport of this water and to understand its variability on seasonal and at longer time scales. The European funded project "Variability of Exchanges in Northern Seas" (VEINS MAS3CT960070) is an attempt to measure variations in the Arctic circulation using modern oceanographic instrumentation. Two combined Inverted Echo Sounder and Bottom Pressure Recorders were successfully recovered and re-deployed in the Denmark Strait to measure the thickness of this cold dense water and thus determine transport.