GLIDER OBSERVATIONS OF THE CANARY CURRENT

The Canary Islands are immersed in the eastern boundary of the subtropical gyre, in the coastal transition zone of the Canary Current Eastern Boundary Current. They are an ideal place for the study of the variability of the subtropical gyre. With this background, in 2006 the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) began an observational program around the Canary Islands, known as the Raprocan (deep hydrographic section of the Canary Islands), in order to establish the scales of variability in the range decadal/subdecadal in the subtropical gyre. Raprocan consists in hydrographic cruises in two seasons, with 50 hydrographic stations around the Canary archipelago. The use of Gliders for oceanographic studies has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool to understand the dynamic regimes at the area and it complements studies based in cruise hydrographic data. The large meaningful applications that offer these devices ranges from quantification of heat exchange between atmosphere – ocean, mass transport quantification, water masses identification, primary productivity quantification of the upwelling area and seasonal variability studies, among others. In this context, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and the Canary Islands Oceanic Platform (PLOCAN) developed a join program to set up glider missions to complement Raprocan. Here we describe the program and its results