The hydrographic setting of the IOC baseline cruise to the eastern Atlantic 30 ° S to 35 ° N

An open ocean baseline study of contaminants in the Atlantic Ocean has been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. The first of three planned surveys was conducted on a cruise of RV Meteor between Cape Town, South Africa and Funchal, Madeira. Stations were occupied in the Cape and Angola Basins of the eastern South Atlantic and over the Cape Verde and Seine Abyssal Plains in the eastern North Atlantic. Surface samples were collected on the transits between stations. Temperature, salinity, oxygen and nutrient results are used in this paper to describe the water masses encountered.