Deployment: RB-07-05

The final GOMECC cruise report was downloaded on 31 January 2010 from NOAA AOML:   PDF format
GOMECC cruise Web site from AOML: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/ocd/gcc/GOMECC/
GOMECC Cruise Track: as a PDF file

Note that this cruise was added to the BCO-DMO database in late January 2010 in expectation that data from the cruise will be contributed as part of the NACP-OCB Coastal Synthesis: Gulf of Mexico project.

Cruise Report Summary:

The first North American Carbon Program (NACP) Gulf of Mexico and East Coast Carbon (GOMECC) Cruise (RB-07-05) on board the R/V Ronald H. Brown conducted sampling in the coastal waters between Galveston in the northern Gulf of Mexico to Boston on the East coast of the United States. The cruise was designed to obtain a snapshot of concentrations and fluxes of key carbon, physical, and biogeochemical parameters in the coastal realm. The program is in support of the North American Carbon Program (NACP) that has as overriding goal to constrain fluxes of carbon over North America and adjacent seas. Full scale repeat occupations are planned every two years to complement mooring time series and other regional activities.

The cruise included a series of 9 transects approximately orthogonal to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast and a comprehensive set of underway measurements along the entire transect (Figure 1). Full water column CTD/rosette stations were occupied at 90 specified locations. A total of 29 scientists from AOML and other government agencies and universities participated on the 26-day cruise which departed from the Galveston, Texas on 10 July, and arrived on schedule in Boston, Massachusetts on 4 August. Water samples were collected from the 24-bottle rosette at each station and analyzed for salinity, oxygen, nutrients, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pCO2, dissolved organic matter, colored dissolved organic matter, particulate organic carbon, halocarbons, alkyl nitrates, CO and phytoplankton pigments. Underway systems were in operation for measuring atmospheric CO2 and near-surface water pCO2, DIC, halocarbons, pH, NH3, CO and bio-optical properties. An in situ spectrophotometric pH profiler was used with the CTD to measure pH profiles to a depth of 1000m. Air-sea fluxes of CO2 and ozone were also measured using eddy correlation methods.

In the midst of a CTD cast along the New Jersey transect, the ship encountered generator cooling problem and needed to go into Boston harbor for emergency repairs. As a result, only two stations of the 10 scheduled stations along the New Jersey transect were occupied. After repair of the ship's generator, science operations resumed July 30 starting at the northern most stations and working backwards through Gulf of Maine and MVCO stations as far as time would allow. All major cruise objectives were achieved.