Atmospheric conditions associated with oceanic convection in the south-east Labrador Sea
It has been speculated that low-level reverse tip-jets, caused by the interaction of synoptic-scale atmospheric flow and Greenland, are an important mechanism for forcing open ocean convection in the south-east Labrador Sea. Here float data and meteorological reanalysis fields from the winter of 199...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2008
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/24833/ https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/24833/1/sproson_etal_forcing_labsea_2007GL032971_GRL_2008.pdf https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL032971 |
Summary: | It has been speculated that low-level reverse tip-jets, caused by the interaction of synoptic-scale atmospheric flow and Greenland, are an important mechanism for forcing open ocean convection in the south-east Labrador Sea. Here float data and meteorological reanalysis fields from the winter of 1996/1997, in combination with a simple mixed-layer ocean model, are used to show that, although relatively deep ocean convection did occur during this winter, the primary forcing mechanism was cold-air outbreaks from the Labrador coast rather than the smaller scale reverse tip-jets. During this winter, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) was in a weak positive phase. Similar treatments of the winters of 1994/1995 (strong, positive NAO) and 1995/1996 (strong, negative NAO) suggest that the result is robust regardless of the state of the NAO. |
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