Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas
Hydrographic and velocity data from a 2018 winter survey of the western Iceland and Greenland Seas are used to investigate the ventilation of overflow water feeding Denmark Strait. We focus on the two general classes of overflow water: warm, saline Atlantic-origin Overflow Water (AtOW) and cold, fre...
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2021
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/140400 2023-06-11T04:09:37+02:00 Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas Huang, Jie Pickart, Robert S. Bahr, Frank McRaven, Leah T. Xu, Fanghua 2021-07-14 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140400 en eng American Geophysical Union (AGU) http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020jc016893 Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 2169-9275 2169-9291 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140400 Huang, J., Pickart, R. S., Bahr, F., McRaven, L. T., & Xu, F. (2021). Wintertime water mass transformation in the western Iceland and Greenland Seas. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 126, e2020JC016893. Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Wiley Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2021 ftmit https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jc016893 2023-05-29T08:45:54Z Hydrographic and velocity data from a 2018 winter survey of the western Iceland and Greenland Seas are used to investigate the ventilation of overflow water feeding Denmark Strait. We focus on the two general classes of overflow water: warm, saline Atlantic-origin Overflow Water (AtOW) and cold, fresh Arctic-origin Overflow Water (ArOW). The former is found predominantly within the East Greenland Current (EGC), while the latter resides in the interior of the Iceland and Greenland Seas. Progressing north to south, the properties of AtOW in the EGC are modified diapycnally during the winter, in contrast to summer when along-isopycnal mixing dominates. The water column response to a 10-days cold-air outbreak was documented using repeat observations. During the event, the northerly winds pushed the freshwater cap of the EGC onshore, and convection modified the water at the seaward edge of the current. Lateral transfer of heat and salt from the core of AtOW in the EGC appears to have influenced some of this water mass transformation. The long-term evolution of the mixed layers in the interior was investigated using a 1-D mixing model. This suggests that, under strong atmospheric forcing, the densest component of ArOW can be ventilated in this region. Numerous anti-cyclonic eddies spawned from the EGC were observed during the winter survey, revealing that these features can play differing roles in modifying/prohibiting the open-ocean convection. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Denmark Strait East Greenland east greenland current Greenland Iceland DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Arctic Greenland Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 126 8 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftmit |
language |
English |
description |
Hydrographic and velocity data from a 2018 winter survey of the western Iceland and Greenland Seas are used to investigate the ventilation of overflow water feeding Denmark Strait. We focus on the two general classes of overflow water: warm, saline Atlantic-origin Overflow Water (AtOW) and cold, fresh Arctic-origin Overflow Water (ArOW). The former is found predominantly within the East Greenland Current (EGC), while the latter resides in the interior of the Iceland and Greenland Seas. Progressing north to south, the properties of AtOW in the EGC are modified diapycnally during the winter, in contrast to summer when along-isopycnal mixing dominates. The water column response to a 10-days cold-air outbreak was documented using repeat observations. During the event, the northerly winds pushed the freshwater cap of the EGC onshore, and convection modified the water at the seaward edge of the current. Lateral transfer of heat and salt from the core of AtOW in the EGC appears to have influenced some of this water mass transformation. The long-term evolution of the mixed layers in the interior was investigated using a 1-D mixing model. This suggests that, under strong atmospheric forcing, the densest component of ArOW can be ventilated in this region. Numerous anti-cyclonic eddies spawned from the EGC were observed during the winter survey, revealing that these features can play differing roles in modifying/prohibiting the open-ocean convection. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Huang, Jie Pickart, Robert S. Bahr, Frank McRaven, Leah T. Xu, Fanghua |
spellingShingle |
Huang, Jie Pickart, Robert S. Bahr, Frank McRaven, Leah T. Xu, Fanghua Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas |
author_facet |
Huang, Jie Pickart, Robert S. Bahr, Frank McRaven, Leah T. Xu, Fanghua |
author_sort |
Huang, Jie |
title |
Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas |
title_short |
Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas |
title_full |
Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas |
title_fullStr |
Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wintertime Water Mass Transformation in the Western Iceland and Greenland Seas |
title_sort |
wintertime water mass transformation in the western iceland and greenland seas |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140400 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Denmark Strait East Greenland east greenland current Greenland Iceland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Denmark Strait East Greenland east greenland current Greenland Iceland |
op_source |
Wiley |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020jc016893 Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 2169-9275 2169-9291 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/140400 Huang, J., Pickart, R. S., Bahr, F., McRaven, L. T., & Xu, F. (2021). Wintertime water mass transformation in the western Iceland and Greenland Seas. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 126, e2020JC016893. |
op_rights |
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jc016893 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
126 |
container_issue |
8 |
_version_ |
1768383583673647104 |