Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1....
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/10599 2023-05-15T15:12:41+02:00 Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland Lin, Peigen Pickart, Robert S. Torres, Daniel J. Pacini, Astrid 2018-09-11 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10599 en_US eng American Meteorological Society https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10599 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 Boundary currents Coastal flows Instability Ocean circulation Potential vorticity Transport Article 2018 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 2022-05-28T23:00:28Z Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1. Shipboard hydrographic and velocity measurements collected in summer 2014 are used to study the evolution of the freshwater coastal current in southern Greenland as it encounters Cape Farewell. The velocity structure reveals that the coastal current maintains its identity as it flows around the cape and bifurcates such that most of the flow is diverted to the outer west Greenland shelf, while a small portion remains on the inner shelf. Taking into account this inner branch, the volume transport of the coastal current is conserved, but the freshwater transport decreases on the west side of Cape Farewell. A significant amount of freshwater appears to be transported off the shelf where the outer branch flows adjacent to the shelfbreak circulation. It is argued that the offshore transposition of the coastal current is caused by the flow following the isobaths as they bend offshore because of the widening of the shelf on the west side of Cape Farewell. An analysis of the potential vorticity shows that the subsequent seaward flux of freshwater can be enhanced by instabilities of the current. This set of circumstances provides a pathway for the freshest water originating from the Arctic, as well as runoff from the Greenland ice sheet, to be fluxed into the interior Labrador Sea where it could influence convection in the basin. Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant OCE-1259618. 2019-03-11 Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Cape Farewell Greenland Ice Sheet Labrador Sea Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Arctic Greenland Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 9 2127 2140 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
Boundary currents Coastal flows Instability Ocean circulation Potential vorticity Transport |
spellingShingle |
Boundary currents Coastal flows Instability Ocean circulation Potential vorticity Transport Lin, Peigen Pickart, Robert S. Torres, Daniel J. Pacini, Astrid Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland |
topic_facet |
Boundary currents Coastal flows Instability Ocean circulation Potential vorticity Transport |
description |
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1. Shipboard hydrographic and velocity measurements collected in summer 2014 are used to study the evolution of the freshwater coastal current in southern Greenland as it encounters Cape Farewell. The velocity structure reveals that the coastal current maintains its identity as it flows around the cape and bifurcates such that most of the flow is diverted to the outer west Greenland shelf, while a small portion remains on the inner shelf. Taking into account this inner branch, the volume transport of the coastal current is conserved, but the freshwater transport decreases on the west side of Cape Farewell. A significant amount of freshwater appears to be transported off the shelf where the outer branch flows adjacent to the shelfbreak circulation. It is argued that the offshore transposition of the coastal current is caused by the flow following the isobaths as they bend offshore because of the widening of the shelf on the west side of Cape Farewell. An analysis of the potential vorticity shows that the subsequent seaward flux of freshwater can be enhanced by instabilities of the current. This set of circumstances provides a pathway for the freshest water originating from the Arctic, as well as runoff from the Greenland ice sheet, to be fluxed into the interior Labrador Sea where it could influence convection in the basin. Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant OCE-1259618. 2019-03-11 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lin, Peigen Pickart, Robert S. Torres, Daniel J. Pacini, Astrid |
author_facet |
Lin, Peigen Pickart, Robert S. Torres, Daniel J. Pacini, Astrid |
author_sort |
Lin, Peigen |
title |
Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland |
title_short |
Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland |
title_full |
Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of Greenland |
title_sort |
evolution of the freshwater coastal current at the southern tip of greenland |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10599 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Cape Farewell Greenland Ice Sheet Labrador Sea |
genre_facet |
Arctic Cape Farewell Greenland Ice Sheet Labrador Sea |
op_source |
Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 48 (2018): 2127-2140 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10599 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-18-0035.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
container_volume |
48 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
2127 |
op_container_end_page |
2140 |
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1766343333613928448 |