Dissolved rare earth element distributions and physical oceanographic observations in the tropical Western Pacific during L'Atalante cruise CASSIOPEE

We present spatially highly resolved distributions of dissolved seawater REE concentrations ([REE]) along three transects in the zonal (extra-)equatorial current system and the Solomon Strait of the Tropical Western Pacific. Seawater samples were collected using Niskin bottles and filtered through AcroPak500 filter cartridges (0.8/0.45 μm pore size) directly from the Niskin bottles or in the onboard laboratory of R/V L'Atalante cruise CASSIOPEE (GEOTRACES compliant data GPc05) in July-August 2015. We use seawater [REE] in combination with direct physical oceanographic observations to characterize the geochemical composition, origin and pathways of the complex surface and upper layer currents of the Tropical Western Pacific and to quantify the input fluxes of REEs in our study area.