- 3 - 
The DHI intends to participate actively in WOCE. The purpose 
of the past and ongoing high density XBT measurements is to 
collect specific experience and to determine the requirements 
needed for the WOCE hot phase. In that context the data 
presented here are the result of a DHI pilot study preparing 
the real WOCE field phase, which explains the recognizable 
changes in the sampling strategy. 
The third objective deals with the statistical analysis of 
specific regional features in the North Atlantic. That is, 
the variability in space and time of 
(a) the thermal front between Labrador Current and North 
Atlantic Current (Horne and Petrie, 1988) ; 
(b) the eddy, meander and branching activity (Fig. 1) as 
well as persistent patterns of the North Atlantic 
Current (Sy, 1987b, 1988; Fahrbach and Wegner, 1987; 
Antonov and Groisman, 1988); 
(c) the winter mixing in the eastern North Atlantic as a 
source of the subarctic mode water transformation 
(McCartney and Talley, 1982; Robinson et al. , 1979; 
Meincke, 1986). 
Fig. 1; 
The North Atlantic current system (after Sy, 1988) 
and area covered by XBT drops of WOCE line AX3.