On the Nature of the Atlantic Water Recirculation in Fram Strait

• Main Authors: von Appen, Wilken-Jon, Schauer, Ursula, Beszczynska-Möller, Agnieszka, Fahrbach, Eberhard
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; East Greenland; east greenland current; Fram Strait; Greenland; Nordic Seas; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/35350/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/35350/1/vonAppen_etal_OSM_2014.pdf; http://www.sgmeet.com/osm2014/viewabstract.asp?AbstractID=13020; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.43348; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.43348.d001

Fram Strait is the only deep ocean connection between the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas. It therefore plays a crucial role in the oceanic exchanges between the Arctic and the lower latitudes. The West Spitsbergen Current and the East Greenland Current are relatively well-studied boundary currents transporting warm water poleward respectively cold water equatorward. The central Fram Strait is dominated by the so-called Atlantic Water Recirculation. This is warm water of Atlantic origin that flows as far north at the approximate latitude of Fram Strait before it turns westward and then back equatorward. Moorings measuring temperature and current velocity have been maintained in Fram Strait from 1997 to the present. Here we use this data set as well as other available information to study the nature of the recirculation. Particular focus is devoted to its temporal variability on daily to interannual time scales. The role of eddies in the flow is examined in comparison to the steady components.