Dynamics of Transport and Variability in the Denmark Strait Overflow

• Main Author: Girton, James B.
• Other Authors: WASHINGTON UNIV SEATTLE APPLIED PHYSICS LAB
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; *DENMARK; *STRAITS; EQUATORIAL REGIONS; DENSITY; COASTAL REGIONS; OCEAN CURRENTS; DYNAMICS; BOUNDARIES; CIRCULATION; INDIAN OCEAN; NORTH AMERICA; DEEP OCEANS; GREENLAND; ICELAND; ARCTIC OCEAN; NORTH ATLANTIC CURRENT; SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; LABRADOR SEA; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; Indian; Pacific; Denmark Strait; Iceland; Labrador Sea; NADW; north atlantic current; North Atlantic Deep Water; North Atlantic; South Atlantic Ocean
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA422505; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA422505

Through the Denmark Strait flows one of the most remarkable currents of the world's oceans. Roughly 3 million cubic meters per second of dense water formed in the Nordic and Arctic Seas spills over the ridge between Greenland and Iceland and cascades more than 2000 m downwards into the North Atlantic supplying a deep boundary current system that extends through the Labrador Sea, down the eastern coast of North America, across the equator and into the South Atlantic. Recognizable characteristics of the resulting North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) are seen through-out the Pacific and Indian oceans, making up the lower limb of the great ocean conveyor belt" Broecker, 19911. The Denmark Strait is one of the most geographically- confined locations along this entire path, and so is a region of great interest to re- searchers interested in understanding the forcing and modifications of the overturning circulation by its individual components, as well as to those interested in monitoring the strength of the circulation on long timescales. In addition, physical processes such as entrainment and bottom drag occur in many similar density currents and overflows, so that knowledge obtained in one can often be applied to others. In this dissertation I will first outline the justifications for and results of previous work and then describe the results of a new set of measurements designed to illuminate some of the details of processes at work in the Denmark Strait Overflow (DSO). The original document contains color images.