| Summary: | The water masses in Fram Strait have been analyzed on the basis of hydrographic casts taken in summer 1984 during the MIZEX 84 experiment. In particular, theta-S diagrams for 16 areas, each 5 o in longitude and 1 o in latitude, covering the strait from 77 o N to 81 o N are used to characterize the water masses and discuss their possible origin. Near the surface, the East Greenland Polar Front clearly separates the lighter, cold and fresh Polar Water (PW) from the heavier, warm and saline Atlantic Water (AW). In the upper ocean, the data show a large spreading of the temperature maximum in the theta-S space associated with different modes of the AW recirculating southward below the PW. Two geographically distinct salinity minima are found in the intermediate layer below the AW. The denser one, in the Boreas Basin, is a feature typical of the Arctic Intermediate Water (AIW) formed by winter convection to the south of the strait, while the lighter one is sandwiched in the Arctic Ocean outflow between the AW layer and the Upper Polar Deep Water (UPDW) characterized by a downward salinity increase. In the deep layer, two salinity maxima are present. The shallower (and warmer) one, associated with the Canadian Basin Deep Water (CBDW), appears all along the East Greenland Slope. A similar but weaker maximum is also found in the southeastern part of the strait. This maximum is perhaps a remnant of the maximum in the East Greenland Current after it has been recirculated back to the strait around the cyclonic gyres of the Nordic Seas. The deeper one appears typically as a near-bottom salinity jump characteristic of the Eurasian Basin Deep Water (EBDW). The jump is found in two distinct areas of the strait, to the north-west in the Lena Trough and to the south-east in the rift valley of the Knipovich Ridge. The maximum in the former area should have been advected from the Arctic Ocean below the CBDW, while the maximum in the latter area might have originated from haline convection on the adjacent shelves. Some EBDW is ...
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