During a 4-week Atlantic Ocean cruise from March 21 to April 15, 1987, along 30 ¿W between 40 ¿S and 40 ¿N, several investigations on trace substances in the air and in the sea were made on board the German R/V Polarstern (ANT V/5). Some of them are discussed in this issue. To better understand these results and to put them into a framework of the general atmospheric situation, daily and long-term mean meteorological data were combined to characterize the atmospheric conditions during this cruise. First, continuous record of surface and rawinsonde data (sea and air temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed, and pressure) was evaluated. Then, as the cruise traversed several climatological zones of the Atlantic Ocean, meridional distributions of surface and upper air data could be worked out; they do not differ significantly from long-term means of this area. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990