IOC 2002

Departed: Osaka, Japan

Date: 1 May 2002

Arrived: Honolulu, Hawaii,

Date: 5 June 2002

The IOC 2002 Contaminant Baseline Survey in the western Pacific Ocean was the fourth in a series of cruises intended to establish the current concentrations of trace elements and other materials in the major water masses of the ocean and to reveal the pathways of the materials delivered to the surface ocean and how they are incorporated in the subsurface waters. The expedition included nine vertical profile stations in the subtropical and subarctic gyre of the western North Pacific. In addition, underway surface water samples were collected during transits between the stations.

The cruise utilized the United States Research Vessel Melville

Figure 1 Distribution of temperature and Salinity from underway sensors along the ship’s track. Discrete salinity samples are shown to indicate agreement with sensor value. Vertical station positions along the cruise trach are shown S1-S9

Figure 2 Nitrite+Nitrate from the continuous underway sampling system. Data were contoured using Generic Mapping Tools. Contours were computed after fitting a minimum curvature surface with tension to the gridded data