Hydrography in the Mediterranean Sea during a cruise with RV POSEIDON in April 2014

We report on data from an oceanographic cruise in the Mediterranean Sea on the German research vessel Poseidon in April 2014. Data were taken on a west-east section, starting at the Strait of Gibraltar and ending south-east of Crete, as well on sections in the Ionian and Adriatic Sea. The objectives of the cruise were threefold: to contribute to the investigation of the spatial evolution of the Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) properties and of the deep water masses in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and to investigate the mesoscale variability of the upper water column. The measurements include salinity, temperature, oxygen and currents and were conducted with a conductivity, temperature and depth(CTD)/rosette system, an underway CTD and an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). The sections are on tracks which have been sampled during several other cruises, thus supporting the opportunity to investigate the long-term temporal development of the different variables. The use of an underway CTD made it possible to conduct measurements of temperature and salinity with a high horizontal spacing of 6 nm between stations and a vertical spacing of 1 dbar for the upper 800 m of the water column.