Jökull - 01.12.1969, Page 28

Fig. 6. Temperature and salinity anomalies at various depths at station S-3 in June during
the period 1924—1968.
all three localities. The lowest February tem-
peratures occurred in 1949, 1952. 1955, 1962 and
1968, but the highest in 1953, 1957, 1960 and
1961. The lowest May temperatures occurred
in recent years. The temperature was also quite
low in May 1949 at all localities, but exception-
ally high in 1964. In the years 1958, 1963, 1967
and 1968 low August temperatures were obsérv-
ed, but high at all localities in 1951, 1953 and
1957, and also high near Langanes in 1955.
In November year to year variations are again
quite small, although there is a tendency to-
wards lower temperatures in most recent years.
The highest November temperatures were
found in 1960, the lowest in 1963.
VARIATIONS
AT SUBSURFACE DEPTHS
The majority of hydrographic observations in
the area north of Iceland have been carried
out in spring and sumrner, whereas observa-
tional data from other seasons are very limited.
An assessment of year to year variations at sub-
surface dephts can therefore only be made for
the summer season. The frequency of observa-
tions is greatest for June.
As two examples of year to year variations
at diiferent depths, temperature and salinity
anomalies were computed for stations S-3,
located west of Grímsey, and L-3, near the
shelf break east of Langanes (see Fig. 1). A
total of 22 observations are available for June
at station S-3 and 18 observations at station
L-3.
West of Grímsey (Fig. 6) negative tempera-
ture and salinity anomalies preclominated dur-
ing the last part of the period, especially the
years 1965—1968. With the exception of 1963
there appears to be a rather close correlation
between the anomalies for various depths. The
greatest temperature difference between years