The Lofoten Basin in the Norwegian Sea is an area where the warm Atlantic Water is subject to the greatest heat losses anywhere in the Nordic Seas. A long‐lived, deep, anticyclonic eddy is located in the central part of the basin (the Lofoten Basin Eddy, LBE). Here we use observations from Seagliders, collected between July 2012 and July 2015, to describe LBE in unprecedented detail. The missions were designed to sample LBE repeatedly, allowing for multiple realizations of radial sections across the eddy. LBE has a mean radius of 18 ± 4 km and propagates cyclonically with a mean speed of approximately 3–4 cm s−1. The anticyclonic azimuthal peak velocity varies between 0.5 and 0.7 m s−1, located between 700 and 900 m depth. The average contribution of geostrophy in the cyclogeostrophic balance is 44%. The relative vorticity of the core is close to the local Coriolis parameter. The evolution of core water properties shows substantial interannual variability, influenced by surface buoyancy flux and advection of anomalous low‐salinity near‐surface waters that may affect the vertical extent of winter convection. A comparison of the eddy properties to those inferred from automated tracking of satellite altimeter observations shows that the location of eddy center is successfully detected to within one half eddy radius, but vorticity is underestimated and the radius overestimated, each approximately by a factor of 2, because of excessive smoothing relative to the small eddy radius.

The Iceland Greenland Seas Project (IGP) is a coordinated atmosphere–ocean research program investigating climate processes in the source region of the densest waters of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. During February and March 2018, a field campaign was executed over the Iceland and southern Greenland Seas that utilized a range of observing platforms to investigate critical processes in the region, including a research vessel, a research aircraft, moorings, sea gliders, floats, and a meteorological buoy. A remarkable feature of the field campaign was the highly coordinated deployment of the observing platforms, whereby the research vessel and aircraft tracks were planned in concert to allow simultaneous sampling of the atmosphere, the ocean, and their interactions. This joint planning was supported by tailor-made convection-permitting weather forecasts and novel diagnostics from an ensemble prediction system. The scientific aims of the IGP are to characterize the atmospheric forcing and the ocean response of coupled processes; in particular, cold-air outbreaks in the vicinity of the marginal ice zone and their triggering of oceanic heat loss, and the role of freshwater in the generation of dense water masses. The campaign observed the life cycle of a long-lasting cold-air outbreak over the Iceland Sea and the development of a cold-air outbreak over the Greenland Sea. Repeated profiling revealed the immediate impact on the ocean, while a comprehensive hydrographic survey provided a rare picture of these subpolar seas in winter. A joint atmosphere–ocean approach is also being used in the analysis phase, with coupled observational analysis and coordinated numerical modeling activities underway.

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Effective separation of water and oil is an essential part of petroleum production. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) can be used to profile the separation of hydrocarbon oil–water mixtures. In such two-component systems, metal electrodes will become oil-coated due to their affinity to oil. This coating layer will impact water content measurements. By combining the TDR signals from two probes in a novel configuration, the thickness of the oil layer on the electrodes can be estimated and its effect on the TDR measurements corrected for. The probes consist of two rods of different diameter and spacing to a common ground/guard electrode. The measurement principle is demonstrated using a light fuel oil and a thicker organic oil. The results indicate that oil and water levels can be monitored during separation if the metal electrode oil-coating effect is accounted for.