This analysis of the hydrographic structure of the Greenland Sea is a part of a five-year international program of integrated oceanographic research in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas whose objective is to quantify the environmental effects that are active in the production of intermediate and deep water masses. The data base for this project is a series of oceanographic cruises, the first of which will take place in the summer of 1987 on board the West German research vessel POLARSTERN. That cruise will focus on the western Greenland Sea, with sufficient coverage on the eastern side to allow for overlapping of sections that will be taken by other participants in the program. A second major thrust of the project is to begin a shore-based analysis of both new and existing data for the examination of the regional circulation and vertical structure, and to prepare a volumetric census of water masses.
