Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic
The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km3 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 so...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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American Geophysical Union
2019
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24488 |
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/24488 2023-05-15T16:18:08+02:00 Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic Dukhovskoy, Dmitry S. Yashayaev, Igor Proshutinsky, Andrey Bamber, Jonathan L. Bashmachnikov, Igor Chassignet, Eric P. Lee, Craig M. Tedstone, Andrew 2019-04-26 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24488 unknown American Geophysical Union https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 Dukhovskoy, D. S., Yashayaev, I., Proshutinsky, A., Bamber, J. L., Bashmachnikov, I. L., Chassignet, E. P., Lee, C. M., & Tedstone, A. J. (2019). Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 124(5), 3333-3360. https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24488 doi:10.1029/2018JC014686 Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Dukhovskoy, D. S., Yashayaev, I., Proshutinsky, A., Bamber, J. L., Bashmachnikov, I. L., Chassignet, E. P., Lee, C. M., & Tedstone, A. J. (2019). Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 124(5), 3333-3360. doi:10.1029/2018JC014686 Greenland ice sheet melting freshwater anomaly subpolar North Atlantic subpolar gyre passive tracer numerical experiment freshwater budget Article 2019 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 2022-05-28T23:03:12Z The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km3 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. © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in 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. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Fram Strait Greenland Ice Sheet North Atlantic Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Greenland Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124 5 3333 3360 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Greenland ice sheet melting freshwater anomaly subpolar North Atlantic subpolar gyre passive tracer numerical experiment freshwater budget |
spellingShingle |
Greenland ice sheet melting freshwater anomaly subpolar North Atlantic subpolar gyre passive tracer numerical experiment freshwater budget Dukhovskoy, Dmitry S. Yashayaev, Igor Proshutinsky, Andrey Bamber, Jonathan L. Bashmachnikov, Igor Chassignet, Eric P. Lee, Craig M. Tedstone, Andrew Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
Greenland ice sheet melting freshwater anomaly subpolar North Atlantic subpolar gyre passive tracer numerical experiment freshwater budget |
description |
The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km3 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. © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in 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. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dukhovskoy, Dmitry S. Yashayaev, Igor Proshutinsky, Andrey Bamber, Jonathan L. Bashmachnikov, Igor Chassignet, Eric P. Lee, Craig M. Tedstone, Andrew |
author_facet |
Dukhovskoy, Dmitry S. Yashayaev, Igor Proshutinsky, Andrey Bamber, Jonathan L. Bashmachnikov, Igor Chassignet, Eric P. Lee, Craig M. Tedstone, Andrew |
author_sort |
Dukhovskoy, Dmitry 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 |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24488 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Fram Strait Greenland Ice Sheet North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Fram Strait Greenland Ice Sheet North Atlantic |
op_source |
Dukhovskoy, D. S., Yashayaev, I., Proshutinsky, A., Bamber, J. L., Bashmachnikov, I. L., Chassignet, E. P., Lee, C. M., & Tedstone, A. J. (2019). Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 124(5), 3333-3360. doi:10.1029/2018JC014686 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014686 Dukhovskoy, D. S., Yashayaev, I., Proshutinsky, A., Bamber, J. L., Bashmachnikov, I. L., Chassignet, E. P., Lee, C. M., & Tedstone, A. J. (2019). Role of Greenland freshwater anomaly in the recent freshening of the subpolar North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 124(5), 3333-3360. https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24488 doi:10.1029/2018JC014686 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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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1766004270516142080 |