Environmental Conditions in the Labrador Sea in 2005 by

• Main Author: R. M. Hendry
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Greenland; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.596.6414; http://archive.nafo.int/open/sc/2006/scr06-010.pdf

Overall, 2005 was a very mild year in the Labrador Sea, similar to 2004. Annual mean 2005 patterns in sea surface temperature and sea-air heat flux both refl ect ed mild conditions in 2005, with some differences in spatial structure compared to 2004. Conditions were somewhat cooler to the north and warmer to the south in 2005. The 16th annual occupation of the AR7W Labrador Sea section from late May to early June 2005 showed a continuation of the recent trend to warmer conditions in the upper layers of the west-central Labrador Sea. Salinities remained high, though slightly lower in 2005 than in 2004. Altimetric measurements showed increases in sea l evel in the west-central Labrador Sea that closely matched the steric changes seen in the hydrography. Warm and saline Irminger Atlantic Waters were plenti ful in the north-eastern Labrador Sea in both May 2004 and May-June 2005. There appears to have been only shallow convection during the winters of 2004/2005, similar to the previous winter. Introduction and Summary Labrador Sea hydrographic conditions depend on a balance between heat lost to the atmosphere and heat gained from warm and saline Atlantic Waters carri ed northward into the Labrador Sea by the West Greenland Current. Severe winters under high North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) conditions lead to greater cooling: in exceptional cases