The contents of these data sets, and the parameters extracted for model runs in the first year of the AMOC project, are described in the technical report for task 1 (Hamre et. al., 1998). From the initial list of sources, the focus was directed to the two Arctic Ocean Atlases from the Environmentai Working Group consisting of leading U.S. and Russian scientists. These atlases, available as CDs, contain winter and summer climatological data from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1950-89. Parameters available are temperature, salinity and density, which are needed for both climate and acoustical models. The parameters are gridded, with 50km resolution, and covers the entire Arctic Basin as well as the Fram Strait. Unfortunately, the original raw data were not included on the CD. From these CDs, the AMOC partners had agreed to extract 3 profiles for use in test and validation runs of the acoustic models, see Fig. 2:
1. TAP-A profile, i.e. from the Russian source camp "Turpan" at 83.5N, 26E north of Svalbard, across the North Pole and along the 210E meridian to the receiver camp "Simi" at about 73N, 150W in the Beaufort Sea.
2. TAP-B profile, i.e. from the Russian source camp "Turpan" at 83.5N, 26E north of Svalbard and to the receiver camp "Narwhal" in the Lincoln Sea at about 83.9N, 62.9W.
3. Fram Strait profile, i.e. along 79N from 11W to 11E.
The CEAREX-1 (The Coordinated Eastern Arctic Experiment) CD with data from a number of field experiments in the Arctic Ocean and the Fram Strait region may also become a valuable source of information for the AMOC project. In particular, this CD contains a CTD database with about 4000 stations from a 11-year period (1976-87). Data in this database has been resampled to a depth interval of 5m, and truncated at 800m depth. These data may be used as additional test and validation data for the acoustical simulations in the Frarn Strait in Task 4, since some of the experiments collected data close to 79N in the strait. The AOGC97 cruise in the Fram Strait in August-September 1997 was lead by O.M. Johannessen, and parts of the collected data have been processed for use in the AMOC project. One CTD and one Seasoar section near 79N in the strait was selected for inclusion on the data CD produced in Task 1.
Researchers at SPRI (Scott Polar Research Institute) have collected and analyzed ice thickness data obtained from submarine upward looking sonars.
