• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    A numerical study of interannual variability in the North Icelandic Irminger Current

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    jgro_Zhao_Article (8.189Mb)
    Date
    2018-10-11
    Author
    Zhao, Jian  Concept link
    Yang, Jiayan  Concept link
    Semper, Stefanie  Concept link
    Pickart, Robert S.  Concept link
    Våge, Kjetil  Concept link
    Valdimarsson, Héðinn  Concept link
    Jónsson, Steingrímur  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/23698
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC013800
    DOI
    10.1029/2018JC013800
    Keyword
     Irminger Current; interannual; wind; numerical modeling 
    Abstract
    The North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC) is an important component of the Atlantic Water (AW) inflow to the Nordic Seas. In this study, both observations and a high‐resolution (1/12°) numerical model are used to investigate the seasonal to interannual variability of the NIIC and its forcing mechanisms. The model‐simulated velocity and hydrographic fields compare well with the available observations. The water mass over the entire north Icelandic shelf exhibits strong seasonal variations in both temperature and salinity, and such variations are closely tied to the AW seasonality in the NIIC. In addition to seasonal variability, there is considerable variation on interannual time scales, including a prominent event in 2003 when the AW volume transport increased by about 0.5 Sv. To identify and examine key forcing mechanisms for this event, we analyzed outputs from two additional numerical experiments: using only the seasonal climatology for buoyancy flux (the momentum case) and using only the seasonal climatology for wind stress (the buoyancy case). It is found that changes in the wind stress are predominantly responsible for the interannual variations in the AW volume transport, AW fraction in the NIIC water, and salinity. Temperature changes on the shelf, however, are equally attributable to the buoyancy flux and wind forcing. Correlational analyses indicate that the AW volume transport is most sensitive to the wind stress southwest of Iceland.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. 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-Oceans 123(12), (2018): 8994-9009, doi:10.1029/2018JC013800.
    Collections
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Zhao, J., Yang, JY., Semper, S., Pickart, RS., Vage, K., Valdimarsson, H., Jonsson, S. (2018). A numerical study of interannual variability in the North Icelandic Irminger Current. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, 123(12), 8994-9009
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Seasonal and interannual variations of Irminger ring formation and boundary–interior heat exchange in FLAME 

      de Jong, Marieke F.; Bower, Amy S.; Furey, Heather H. (American Meteorological Society, 2016-05-23)
      The contribution of warm-core anticyclones shed by the Irminger Current off West Greenland, known as Irminger rings, to the restratification of the upper layers of the Labrador Sea is investigated in the 1/12° Family of ...
    • Thumbnail

      The North Icelandic Jet and its relationship to the North Icelandic Irminger Current 

      Pickart, Robert S.; Spall, Michael A.; Torres, Daniel J.; Våge, Kjetil; Valdimarsson, Héðinn; Nobre, Carolina; Moore, G. W. K.; Jonsson, Steingrimur; Mastropole, Dana M. (Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2017-09-01)
      Shipboard hydrographic and velocity sections are used to quantify aspects of the North Icelandic Jet (NIJ), which transports dense overflow water to Denmark Strait, and the North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC), which ...
    • Thumbnail

      Seasonal and interannual variability of the West Greenland Current System in the Labrador Sea in 1993–2008 

      Rykova, Tatiana A.; Straneo, Fiamma; Bower, Amy S. (John Wiley & Sons, 2015-02-25)
      The West Greenland Current System (WGCS) transports heat and freshwater into the Labrador Sea, influencing the formation of Labrador Sea Water, a key component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Notwithstanding ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo