The Atlantic Water boundary current in the Nansen Basin : transport and mechanisms of lateral exchange
Date
2016-09-22Author
Våge, Kjetil
Concept link
Pickart, Robert S.
Concept link
Pavlov, Vladimir
Concept link
Lin, Peigen
Concept link
Torres, Daniel J.
Concept link
Ingvaldsen, Randi B.
Concept link
Sundfjord, Arild
Concept link
Proshutinsky, Andrey
Concept link
Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8577As published
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JC011715DOI
10.1002/2016JC011715Keyword
Atlantic Water; Boundary current; Nansen Basin; Lateral exchange; Eddy; UpwellingAbstract
Data from a shipboard hydrographic survey near 30°E in the Nansen Basin of the Arctic Ocean are used to investigate the structure and transport of the Atlantic Water boundary current. Two high-resolution synoptic crossings of the current indicate that it is roughly 30 km wide and weakly middepth-intensified. Using a previously determined definition of Atlantic Water, the transport of this water mass is calculated to be 1.6 ± 0.3 Sv, which is similar to the transport of Atlantic Water in the inner branch of the West Spitsbergen Current. At the time of the survey a small anticyclonic eddy of Atlantic Water was situated just offshore of the boundary current. The data suggest that the feature was recently detached from the boundary current, and, due to compensating effects of temperature and salinity on the thermal wind shear, the maximum swirl speed was situated below the hydrographic property core. Two other similar features were detected within our study domain, suggesting that these eddies are common and represent an effective means of fluxing warm and salty water from the boundary current into the interior. An atmospheric low-pressure system transiting south of our study area resulted in southeasterly winds prior to and during the field measurements. A comparison to hydrographic data from the Pacific Water boundary current in the Canada Basin under similar atmospheric forcing suggests that upwelling was taking place during the survey. This provides a second mechanism related to cross-stream exchange of heat and salt in this region of the Nansen Basin.
Description
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2016. 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 121 (2016): 6946–6960, doi:10.1002/2016JC011715.
Collections
Suggested Citation
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 121 (2016): 6946–6960Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Observations of water mass transformation and eddies in the Lofoten basin of the Nordic Seas
Richards, Clark G.; Straneo, Fiamma (American Meteorological Society, 2015-06)The Lofoten basin of the Nordic Seas is recognized as a crucial component of the meridional overturning circulation in the North Atlantic because of the large horizontal extent of Atlantic Water and winter surface buoyancy ... -
Intermediate water links to Deep Western Boundary Current variability in the subtropical NW Atlantic during marine isotope stages 5 and 4
Evans, H. K.; Hall, Ian R.; Bianchi, G. G.; Oppo, Delia W. (American Geophysical Union, 2007-08-02)Records from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1057 and 1059 (2584 m and 2985 m water depth, respectively) have been used to reconstruct the behavior of the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) on the Blake Outer Ridge (BOR) ... -
Variability and redistribution of heat in the Atlantic Water boundary current north of Svalbard
Renner, Angelika H. H.; Sundfjord, Arild; Janout, Markus A.; Ingvaldsen, Randi B.; Beszczynska-Möller, Agnieszka; Pickart, Robert S.; Pérez-Hernández, M. Dolores (John Wiley & Sons, 2018-09-12)We quantify Atlantic Water heat loss north of Svalbard using year‐long hydrographic and current records from three moorings deployed across the Svalbard Branch of the Atlantic Water boundary current in 2012–2013. The ...