Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic
The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km(3) since the 1990s. The volume of this surplus freshwater is expected to cause substantial freshening in the North Atlantic. Analysis of hydrographic observations in the subpolar seas reveals freshening signals in the 2010s. The...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6618073 2023-05-15T16:18:08+02:00 Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic Dukhovskoy, D. S. Yashayaev, I. Proshutinsky, A. Bamber, J. L. Bashmachnikov, I. L. Chassignet, E. P. Lee, C. M. Tedstone, A. J. 2019-05-25 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6618073/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31341755 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6618073/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31341755 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 ©2019. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Research Articles Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 2019-08-04T00:30:53Z The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km(3) since the 1990s. The volume of this surplus freshwater is expected to cause substantial freshening in the North Atlantic. Analysis of hydrographic observations in the subpolar seas reveals freshening signals in the 2010s. The sources of this freshening are yet to be determined. In this study, the relationship between the surplus Greenland freshwater flux and this freshening is tested by analyzing the propagation of the Greenland freshwater anomaly and its impact on salinity in the subpolar North Atlantic based on observational data and numerical experiments with and without the Greenland runoff. A passive tracer is continuously released during the simulations at freshwater sources along the coast of Greenland to track the Greenland freshwater anomaly. Tracer budget analysis shows that 44% of the volume of the Greenland freshwater anomaly is retained in the subpolar North Atlantic by the end of the simulation. This volume is sufficient to cause strong freshening in the subpolar seas if it stays in the upper 50–100 m. However, in the model the anomaly is mixed down to several hundred meters of the water column resulting in smaller magnitudes of freshening compared to the observations. Therefore, the simulations suggest that the accelerated Greenland melting would not be sufficient to cause the observed freshening in the subpolar seas and other sources of freshwater have contributed to the freshening. Impacts on salinity in the subpolar seas of the freshwater transport through Fram Strait and precipitation are discussed. Text Fram Strait Greenland North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) Greenland Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124 5 3333 3360 |
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Research Articles |
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Research Articles Dukhovskoy, D. S. Yashayaev, I. Proshutinsky, A. Bamber, J. L. Bashmachnikov, I. L. Chassignet, E. P. Lee, C. M. Tedstone, A. J. Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
Research Articles |
description |
The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km(3) since the 1990s. The volume of this surplus freshwater is expected to cause substantial freshening in the North Atlantic. Analysis of hydrographic observations in the subpolar seas reveals freshening signals in the 2010s. The sources of this freshening are yet to be determined. In this study, the relationship between the surplus Greenland freshwater flux and this freshening is tested by analyzing the propagation of the Greenland freshwater anomaly and its impact on salinity in the subpolar North Atlantic based on observational data and numerical experiments with and without the Greenland runoff. A passive tracer is continuously released during the simulations at freshwater sources along the coast of Greenland to track the Greenland freshwater anomaly. Tracer budget analysis shows that 44% of the volume of the Greenland freshwater anomaly is retained in the subpolar North Atlantic by the end of the simulation. This volume is sufficient to cause strong freshening in the subpolar seas if it stays in the upper 50–100 m. However, in the model the anomaly is mixed down to several hundred meters of the water column resulting in smaller magnitudes of freshening compared to the observations. Therefore, the simulations suggest that the accelerated Greenland melting would not be sufficient to cause the observed freshening in the subpolar seas and other sources of freshwater have contributed to the freshening. Impacts on salinity in the subpolar seas of the freshwater transport through Fram Strait and precipitation are discussed. |
format |
Text |
author |
Dukhovskoy, D. S. Yashayaev, I. Proshutinsky, A. Bamber, J. L. Bashmachnikov, I. L. Chassignet, E. P. Lee, C. M. Tedstone, A. J. |
author_facet |
Dukhovskoy, D. S. Yashayaev, I. Proshutinsky, A. Bamber, J. L. Bashmachnikov, I. L. Chassignet, E. P. Lee, C. M. Tedstone, A. J. |
author_sort |
Dukhovskoy, D. S. |
title |
Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic |
title_short |
Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic |
title_full |
Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Role of Greenland Freshwater Anomaly in the Recent Freshening of the Subpolar North Atlantic |
title_sort |
role of greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar north atlantic |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6618073/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31341755 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Fram Strait Greenland North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Fram Strait Greenland North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6618073/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31341755 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 |
op_rights |
©2019. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
124 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
3333 |
op_container_end_page |
3360 |
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1766004255219515392 |