Bounded by the three IMR standard hydrographic sections Gimsøy, Bear Island West and Fugløya-Bear Island, the NwAC bifurcates at about 73oN into Barents Sea and Fram Strait paths. As such these sections are ideally located to investigate this bifurcation. However, only the Fugløya-Bear Island section is sufficiently sampled including both an array of moorings and frequent hydrographic measurements.

For the Gimsøy section, and especially the Bear Island west section, hydrographic measurements are infrequent. Thus, to improve the description of the processes relevant for the bifurcation we propose to operate a seaglider in the Gimsøy and Bear Island West sections in sequence. Along with the sampling under1.4 these data will provide an excellent basis for activity 3.3, and also provide input to task 3.1. We will also explore the possibility to run the glider along altimeter tracks to combine the data with the satellite sea surface height data.