Hydrography of the Labrador Sea During Active Convection

• Main Author: Pickart, Robert S
• Other Authors: WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION MA DEPT OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Hydrology; Limnology and Potamology; Thermodynamics; *CONVECTION(HEAT TRANSFER); *HYDROGRAPHY; *LABRADOR SEA; DEPTH; DYNAMICS; NUMERICAL METHODS AND PROCEDURES; OCEAN CURRENTS; OCEAN CONVECTiON; PARAMETERIZATION; ATMOSPHERIC FORCING; Ari; Bedford; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA609735; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA609735

The long-term goals are to improve our understanding of the dynamics of open-ocean convection and its parameterization in large-scale numerical models. The main objectives are (1) to describe the large-scale context within which convection occurs, including the water masses involved and the general circulation, and (2) to characterize the mixed layer structure and variability, both laterally and vertically, and hence shed light on the nature of the overturning. A hydrographic data set was collected in winter 1997 as part of the Deep Convection Accelerated Research Initiative (ARI). These data together with atmospheric forcing fields (K. Moore, University of Toronto) and hydrography collected the previous fall and following spring (A. Clarke, Bedford Institute of Oceanography) are being analyzed together to investigate overturning in the Labrador Sea. To elucidate various larger-scale aspects of convection in the subpolar North Atlantic, a hydrographic/direct-velocity data set from the Irminger and Labrador Seas during the time period 1990 97 was assembled.