Zonal circulation across 52°W in the North Atlantic

View/ Open
Date
2004-11-18Author
Hall, Melinda M.
Concept link
Joyce, Terrence M.
Concept link
Pickart, Robert S.
Concept link
Smethie, William M.
Concept link
Torres, Daniel J.
Concept link
Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/3582As published
https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JC002103DOI
10.1029/2003JC002103Abstract
In July–August 1997, a hydrographic/Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP)/tracer section was occupied along 52°W in the North Atlantic as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment Hydrographic Program. Underway and lowered ADCP (LADCP) data have been used to reference geostrophic velocities calculated from the hydrographic data; additional (small) velocity adjustments provided by an inverse model, constraining mass and silicate transports in 17 neutral density layers, yield the absolute zonal velocity field for 52°W. We find a vigorous circulation throughout the entire section, with an unusually strong Gulf Stream (169 Sv) and southern Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC; 64 Sv) at the time of the cruise. At the northern boundary, on the west side of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, we find the westward flowing Labrador Current (8.6 Sv), whose continuity from the Labrador Sea, east of our section, has been disputed. Directly to the south we identify the slopewater current (12.5 Sv eastward) and northern DWBC (12.5 Sv westward). Strong departures from strictly zonal flow in the interior, which are found in the LADCP data, make it difficult to diagnose the circulation there. Isolated deep property extrema in the southern portion, associated with alternating bands of eastward and westward flow, are consistent with the idea that the rough topography of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, directly east of our section, causes enhanced mixing of Antarctic Bottom Water properties into overlying waters with distinctly different properties. We calculate heat and freshwater fluxes crossing 52°W that exceed estimates based on air-sea exchanges by a factor of 1.7.
Description
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. 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 109 (2004): C11008, doi:10.1029/2003JC002103.
Collections
Suggested Citation
Journal of Geophysical Research 109 (2004): C11008Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Spreading of Denmark Strait overflow water in the western subpolar North Atlantic : insights from eddy-resolving simulations with a passive tracer
Xu, Xiaobiao; Rhines, Peter B.; Chassignet, Eric P.; Schmitz, William J. (American Meteorological Society, 2015-12)The oceanic deep circulation is shared between concentrated deep western boundary currents (DWBCs) and broader interior pathways, a process that is sensitive to seafloor topography. This study investigates the spreading ... -
Properties and origins of the anisotropic eddy-induced transport in the North Atlantic
Kamenkovich, Igor V.; Rypina, Irina I.; Berloff, Pavel S. (American Meteorological Society, 2015-03)This study examines anisotropic transport properties of the eddying North Atlantic flow, using an idealized model of the double-gyre oceanic circulation and altimetry-derived velocities. The material transport by the ... -
On the world ocean circulation. Volume I, some global features/North Atlantic circulation
Schmitz, William J. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1996-06)This is the first volume of a "final report" that summarizes, often in a speculative vein, what I have learned over the past 35 years or so about large-scale, low-frequency ocean currents, primarily with support from the ...