The summertime variation of heat and freshwater contents between the Azores and Greenland

• Published in: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
• Main Authors: Bauer, J., Leach, H., Woods, J. D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1991
• Subjects: Atmospheric Science; Greenland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.49711750110; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.49711750110; https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.49711750110

Abstract The Kiel Sea Rover System was used to make a series of hydrographic surveys north of the Azores, which provided the first detailed description of the spatial structure of the summertime heat and freshwater contents. Our results confirm the conclusion based on earlier studies that advection plays a dominant role in the seasonal change in the freshwater content. Using the new data we have assessed the reliability of estimates of the various contributions to the summertime changes of fresh water content based on climatological estimates of the surface fluxes, on Ekman and geostrophic transport and on horizontal eddy diffusivity. We show that they contain substantial inconsistencies and consider how these might have arisen. Joint regression of the heat and freshwater variations recorded in our synoptic data suggest a balance of contributions that is significantly different from that derived from climatology, but, in view of the complexity of the region, we do not claim that they do more than reveal the difficulty of the problem.