Interannual changes in the overflow from the Nordic Seas into the Atlantic Ocean through the Denmark Strait

The global thermohaline circulation is an important part of Earth's climate system. Cold, dense water formed in the Nordic Seas enters the Atlantic Ocean as overflows across the sills of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The Denmark Strait Overflow (DSO) is one of the main sources of North Atlantic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Macrander, Andreas, Send, Uwe, Valdimarsson, H., Jonsson, S., Käse, Rolf H.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: AGU (American Geophysical Union) 2005
Subjects:
Greenland
Denmark Strait
Greenland-Scotland Ridge
Nordic Seas
North Atlantic Deep Water
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/6614/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/6614/1/2004GL021463.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL021463
Description
Summary:The global thermohaline circulation is an important part of Earth's climate system. Cold, dense water formed in the Nordic Seas enters the Atlantic Ocean as overflows across the sills of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The Denmark Strait Overflow (DSO) is one of the main sources of North Atlantic Deep Water. Until now the DSO has been believed to be stable on interannual timescales. Here, for the first time, evidence is presented from a 4-year program of observations showing that overflow transports in 1999/2000 were approximately 30% higher than previous estimates. Later, transports decreased remarkably during the observation period, coincident with a temporary temperature increase of about 0.5°C.

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