Hydrographic structure of overflow water passing through the Denmark Strait

• Main Author: Mastropole, Dana M
• Other Authors: Robert S. Pickart., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution., Joint Program in Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2015
• Subjects: Joint Program in Physical Oceanography; Earth; Atmospheric; and Planetary Sciences; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Greenland; Irminger Sea; Denmark Strait; Greenland-Scotland Ridge; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic Deep Water; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/101344

Thesis: S.M., Joint Program in Physical Oceanography (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2015. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-66). Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) constitutes the densest portion of North Atlantic Deep Water, which feeds the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). As such, it is critical to understand how DSOW is transferred from the upstream basins in the Nordic Seas, across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge, and to the North Atlantic Ocean. The goal of this study is to characterize the hydrographic structure of the different DSOW constituents at the sill before the water descends into the Irminger Sea using temperature and salinity (T/S) data from 111 shipboard crossings in the vicinity of the sill, collected between 1990 and 2012. The individual realizations indicate that weakly stratified "boluses" of DSOW frequent the sill and contribute the densest water to the overflow. This study also characterizes the structure, size, and location of the boluses and relates them to the T/S modes found at the sill. Lastly, historical hydrographic data from the Nordic Seas are used to make inferences regarding the origin of the boluses. by Dana M. Mastropole. S.M.