Broad-Scale Station Protocol

The Broad-scale cruises will carry out CTD, zooplankton, fish larval and acoustic surveys of Georges Bank and adjacent waters in addition to the ship's suite of meterological measurements. On each survey cruise, most of these stations are called the "Standard Stations". They are located to provide a uniform, bank-wide coverage. The remaining stations are located equidistant between each pair of standard stations. At these "in-between sites", Bongo tows will be taken.

There are two types of standard stations defined for broad-scale cruises:

full stations where MOCNESS1, MOCNESS10, CTD, Pump, and Bongo data are collected;
partial stations where Bongo, MOCNESS1 and CTD data are collected.

Each "Standard Station" is assigned a priority number, from 1 to 4. Priority 1 and 2 stations are "full stations" and priority 3 and 4 stations are "partial stations". Priority 1 stations are "more important" than priority 2 stations, etc. If circumstances require the chief scientist to drop any of the core stations (due to weather or other ship delays) the Chief Scientist is requested to follow the station priorities as show here. All intermediate stations are to be viewed as having a priority of 5, that is, lower than the standard stations.

Once the standard stations and intermediate stations are taken, the Chief Scientist can return to interesting areas for additional station work at his/her discretion. However, given the length of the cruise, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient time for any additional stations.

For additional information, including a table of positions and their priorities, see the Broad-Scale Station Plan for 1997.

For the Broad-scale Station protocol used during the 1996 field year, click here.

For the Broad-scale Station protocol used during the 1995 field year, click here.