The Shelf Edge Exchange Processes Experiment, Seep-Ip - an Introduction to Hypotheses, Results and Conclusions

The SEEP (Shelf Edge Exchange Processes)-II experiment was the second of two that look place in the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB) of the eastern U.S. continental shelf and slope. The experiment included an array of 10 multi-instrumented moorings deployed for 15 months and 10 oceanographic cruises, all designed to address the problem of the fate of continental shelf particulate matter in general, and organic carbon in particular. This paper provides the setting and background for the SEEP Program, the SEEP-II experiment and an introduction to the 18 papers constituting the subject of this special volume. Because those papers lack one of a general nature on the physical oceanographic setting of the experiment, that aspect is treated in somewhat more detail here.