Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2017. 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 47 (2017): 2631-2646, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1....
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/9398 2023-05-15T15:15:21+02:00 Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait Håvik, Lisbeth Våge, Kjetil Pickart, Robert S. Harden, Benjamin E. von Appen, Wilken-Jon Jónsson, Steingrímur Østerhus, Svein 2017-10-31 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9398 en_US eng American Meteorological Society https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 47 (2017): 2631-2646 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9398 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 47 (2017): 2631-2646 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 Ocean Arctic Boundary currents Currents Stability Oceanic variability Article 2017 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 2022-05-28T23:00:04Z Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2017. 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 47 (2017): 2631-2646, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1. Data from a mooring array deployed north of Denmark Strait from September 2011 to August 2012 are used to investigate the structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current (EGC). The shelfbreak EGC is a surface-intensified current situated just offshore of the east Greenland shelf break flowing southward through Denmark Strait. This study identified two dominant spatial modes of variability within the current: a pulsing mode and a meandering mode, both of which were most pronounced in fall and winter. A particularly energetic event in November 2011 was related to a reversal of the current for nearly a month. In addition to the seasonal signal, the current was associated with periods of enhanced eddy kinetic energy and increased variability on shorter time scales. The data indicate that the current is, for the most part, barotropically stable but subject to baroclinic instability from September to March. By contrast, in summer the current is mainly confined to the shelf break with decreased eddy kinetic energy and minimal baroclinic conversion. No other region of the Nordic Seas displays higher levels of eddy kinetic energy than the shelfbreak EGC north of Denmark Strait during fall. This appears to be due to the large velocity variability on mesoscale time scales generated by the instabilities. The mesoscale variability documented here may be a source of the variability observed at the Denmark Strait sill. Support for this work was provided by the Norwegian Research Council under Grant Agreement 231647 (LH and KV) and the Bergen Research Foundation under Grant BFS2016REK01 (KV). Additional funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grants OCE-0959381 and OCE-1558742 (RP). Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Denmark Strait East Greenland east greenland current Greenland Nordic Seas Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Arctic Bergen Greenland Journal of Physical Oceanography 47 10 2631 2646 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
Ocean Arctic Boundary currents Currents Stability Oceanic variability |
spellingShingle |
Ocean Arctic Boundary currents Currents Stability Oceanic variability Håvik, Lisbeth Våge, Kjetil Pickart, Robert S. Harden, Benjamin E. von Appen, Wilken-Jon Jónsson, Steingrímur Østerhus, Svein Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait |
topic_facet |
Ocean Arctic Boundary currents Currents Stability Oceanic variability |
description |
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2017. 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 47 (2017): 2631-2646, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1. Data from a mooring array deployed north of Denmark Strait from September 2011 to August 2012 are used to investigate the structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current (EGC). The shelfbreak EGC is a surface-intensified current situated just offshore of the east Greenland shelf break flowing southward through Denmark Strait. This study identified two dominant spatial modes of variability within the current: a pulsing mode and a meandering mode, both of which were most pronounced in fall and winter. A particularly energetic event in November 2011 was related to a reversal of the current for nearly a month. In addition to the seasonal signal, the current was associated with periods of enhanced eddy kinetic energy and increased variability on shorter time scales. The data indicate that the current is, for the most part, barotropically stable but subject to baroclinic instability from September to March. By contrast, in summer the current is mainly confined to the shelf break with decreased eddy kinetic energy and minimal baroclinic conversion. No other region of the Nordic Seas displays higher levels of eddy kinetic energy than the shelfbreak EGC north of Denmark Strait during fall. This appears to be due to the large velocity variability on mesoscale time scales generated by the instabilities. The mesoscale variability documented here may be a source of the variability observed at the Denmark Strait sill. Support for this work was provided by the Norwegian Research Council under Grant Agreement 231647 (LH and KV) and the Bergen Research Foundation under Grant BFS2016REK01 (KV). Additional funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grants OCE-0959381 and OCE-1558742 (RP). |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Håvik, Lisbeth Våge, Kjetil Pickart, Robert S. Harden, Benjamin E. von Appen, Wilken-Jon Jónsson, Steingrímur Østerhus, Svein |
author_facet |
Håvik, Lisbeth Våge, Kjetil Pickart, Robert S. Harden, Benjamin E. von Appen, Wilken-Jon Jónsson, Steingrímur Østerhus, Svein |
author_sort |
Håvik, Lisbeth |
title |
Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait |
title_short |
Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait |
title_full |
Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait |
title_fullStr |
Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait |
title_full_unstemmed |
Structure and variability of the shelfbreak East Greenland Current north of Denmark Strait |
title_sort |
structure and variability of the shelfbreak east greenland current north of denmark strait |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9398 |
geographic |
Arctic Bergen Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Bergen Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Denmark Strait East Greenland east greenland current Greenland Nordic Seas |
genre_facet |
Arctic Denmark Strait East Greenland east greenland current Greenland Nordic Seas |
op_source |
Journal of Physical Oceanography 47 (2017): 2631-2646 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 47 (2017): 2631-2646 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9398 doi:10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-17-0062.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
container_volume |
47 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
2631 |
op_container_end_page |
2646 |
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1766345720860770304 |