Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02, doi:10.1029/2008JC004829. Six Ice-Tethered...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Geophysical Union
2008
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3749 |
id |
ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/3749 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/3749 2023-05-15T15:02:07+02:00 Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline Timmermans, Mary-Louise Toole, John M. Krishfield, Richard A. Winsor, Peter 2008-12-17 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3749 en_US eng American Geophysical Union https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JC004829 Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3749 doi:10.1029/2008JC004829 Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02 doi:10.1029/2008JC004829 Double-diffusion Canada basin Ice-Tethered Profiler Article 2008 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JC004829 2022-05-28T22:58:04Z Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02, doi:10.1029/2008JC004829. Six Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITP), deployed in the central Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean between 2004 and 2007, have provided detailed potential temperature and salinity measurements of a double-diffusive staircase at about 200–300 m depth. Individual layers in the staircase are of order 1 m in vertical height but appear to extend horizontally for hundreds of kilometers, with along-layer gradients of temperature and salinity tightly related. On the basis of laboratory-derived double-diffusive flux laws, estimated vertical heat fluxes through the staircase are in the range 0.05–0.3 W m−2, only about one tenth of the estimated mean surface mixed layer heat flux to the sea ice. It is thus concluded that the vertical transport of heat from the Atlantic Water in the central basin is unlikely to have a significant impact to the Canada Basin ocean surface heat budget. Icebreaker conductivity-temperature-depth data from the Beaufort Gyre Freshwater Experiment show that the staircase is absent at the basin periphery. Turbulent mixing that presumably disrupts the staircase might drive greater flux from the Atlantic Water at the basin boundaries and possibly dominate the regionally averaged heat flux. Funding for construction and deployment of the prototype ITPs was provided by the National Science Foundation Oceanographic Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination (OTIC) Program and Office of Polar Programs (OPP) under grant OCE-0324233. Continued support for the ITP field program and data analysis has been provided by the OPP Arctic Sciences Section under awards ARC-0519899, ARC-0631951, ARC-0713837, and internal WHOI funding. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Arctic Sciences Section canada basin Sea ice Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Arctic Arctic Ocean Canada Central Basin ENVELOPE(43.000,43.000,73.500,73.500) Journal of Geophysical Research 113 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
Double-diffusion Canada basin Ice-Tethered Profiler |
spellingShingle |
Double-diffusion Canada basin Ice-Tethered Profiler Timmermans, Mary-Louise Toole, John M. Krishfield, Richard A. Winsor, Peter Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline |
topic_facet |
Double-diffusion Canada basin Ice-Tethered Profiler |
description |
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02, doi:10.1029/2008JC004829. Six Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITP), deployed in the central Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean between 2004 and 2007, have provided detailed potential temperature and salinity measurements of a double-diffusive staircase at about 200–300 m depth. Individual layers in the staircase are of order 1 m in vertical height but appear to extend horizontally for hundreds of kilometers, with along-layer gradients of temperature and salinity tightly related. On the basis of laboratory-derived double-diffusive flux laws, estimated vertical heat fluxes through the staircase are in the range 0.05–0.3 W m−2, only about one tenth of the estimated mean surface mixed layer heat flux to the sea ice. It is thus concluded that the vertical transport of heat from the Atlantic Water in the central basin is unlikely to have a significant impact to the Canada Basin ocean surface heat budget. Icebreaker conductivity-temperature-depth data from the Beaufort Gyre Freshwater Experiment show that the staircase is absent at the basin periphery. Turbulent mixing that presumably disrupts the staircase might drive greater flux from the Atlantic Water at the basin boundaries and possibly dominate the regionally averaged heat flux. Funding for construction and deployment of the prototype ITPs was provided by the National Science Foundation Oceanographic Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination (OTIC) Program and Office of Polar Programs (OPP) under grant OCE-0324233. Continued support for the ITP field program and data analysis has been provided by the OPP Arctic Sciences Section under awards ARC-0519899, ARC-0631951, ARC-0713837, and internal WHOI funding. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Timmermans, Mary-Louise Toole, John M. Krishfield, Richard A. Winsor, Peter |
author_facet |
Timmermans, Mary-Louise Toole, John M. Krishfield, Richard A. Winsor, Peter |
author_sort |
Timmermans, Mary-Louise |
title |
Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline |
title_short |
Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline |
title_full |
Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline |
title_fullStr |
Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice-Tethered Profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the Canada Basin thermocline |
title_sort |
ice-tethered profiler observations of the double-diffusive staircase in the canada basin thermocline |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3749 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(43.000,43.000,73.500,73.500) |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Canada Central Basin |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Canada Central Basin |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Arctic Sciences Section canada basin Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Arctic Sciences Section canada basin Sea ice |
op_source |
Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02 doi:10.1029/2008JC004829 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JC004829 Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (2008): C00A02 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3749 doi:10.1029/2008JC004829 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JC004829 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research |
container_volume |
113 |
_version_ |
1766334102805413888 |