Interannual to decadal variability of outflow from the Labrador Sea

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Fischer, Jürgen, Visbeck, Martin, Zantopp, Rainer J., Nunes, Nuno
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: AGU (American Geophysical Union) 2010
• Subjects: Labrador Shelf; Labrador Sea
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/10063/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/10063/3/grl27565.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL045321

A decade of weak convection in the Labrador Sea associated with decreasing water mass transformation, in combination with advective and eddy fluxes into the convection area, caused significant warming of the deep waters in both the central Labrador Sea and boundary current system along the Labrador shelf break. The connection to the export of Deep Water was studied based on moored current meter stations between 1997 and 2009 at the exit of the Labrador Sea, near the shelf break at 5˚3N. More than 100 year -long current meter records spanning the full water column have been analyzed with respect to high frequency variability, decaying from the surface to the bottom layer, and for the annual mean flow, showing intra- to interannual variability but no detectable decadal trend in the strength of the deep and near-bottom flow out of the Labrador Sea.