Description of the 1997 oceanographic conditions on the northeast continental shelf

A summary of hydrographic observations for 19 surveys on the northeast continental shelf during 1997 is presented. Distributions of station position, surface and bottom temperature, salinity, and anomalies are portrayed. The average surface and bottom temperature and salinity have been calculated for each survey in five geographic regions over the northeast continental shelf: western Gulf of Maine (GOMW), eastern Gulf of Maine (GOlVlE), Georges Bank (GB), northern Middle Atlantic Bight (MABN) and southern Middle Atlantic Bight (MABS). Nearly the entire northeast continental shelf experienced fresher salinity conditions during the 1997 field season, although the trend in salinity anomalies was approaching "expected" conditons relative to the MARMAP reference period toward the latter part of the year. The temperature distributions for all five regions show a fairly typical seasonal pattern. Much of the "noise" seen in the anomaly distributions can be attributed to either biased station coverage within a particular region or to too few stations sampled (note especially those calculations made using less than 10 observations). by Maureen H. Taylor and Cristina Bascuñán. "February 1998." System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Includes bibliographical references (pages 6-7). 1998 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) Library Public Domain 1863