Atmospheric forcing of salinity in the overflow of Denmark Strait

International audience The temporal evolution of the characteristics of Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) is reconstructed using hydrographic data and compared with possible atmospheric forcing mechanisms. It is concluded that the main factor influencing the DSOW characteristics at a time scale o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Holfort, J., Albrecht, T.
Other Authors: Institut für Meereskunde Hamburg, Universität Hamburg (UHH), present adress: BSH, Deutsche Marine
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2007
Subjects:
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean
Atmosphere
Denmark Strait
Online Access:https://hal.science/hal-00298342
https://hal.science/hal-00298342/document
https://hal.science/hal-00298342/file/os-3-411-2007.pdf
Description
Summary:International audience The temporal evolution of the characteristics of Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) is reconstructed using hydrographic data and compared with possible atmospheric forcing mechanisms. It is concluded that the main factor influencing the DSOW characteristics at a time scale of one to several years is the difference in mean sea level pressure across Denmark Strait or, in other words, the wind along Denmark Strait. At these time scales upstream changes in the characteristics of the different water masses involved in the formation of DSOW are only of minor importance. The main process responsible for the observed salinity changes in the DSOW is mixing in Denmark Strait. Triggered by the wind, different water masses contribute with changing amounts to the formation of DSOW, leading to the observed changes in the salinity of DSOW.

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