Wind-driven transport of fresh shelf water into the upper 30 m of the Labrador Sea
<p>The Labrador Sea is one of a small number of deep convection sites in the North Atlantic that contribute to the meridional overturning circulation. Buoyancy is lost from surface waters during winter, allowing the formation of dense deep water. During the last few decades, mass loss from...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Ocean Science |
| Online Access: | https://www.ocean-sci.net/14/1247/2018/os-14-1247-2018.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>The Labrador Sea is one of a small number of deep convection
sites in the North Atlantic that contribute to the meridional overturning
circulation. Buoyancy is lost from surface waters during winter, allowing the
formation of dense deep water. During the last few decades, mass loss from
the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, releasing freshwater into the high-latitude North Atlantic. This and the enhanced Arctic freshwater export in
recent years have the potential to add buoyancy to surface waters, slowing or
suppressing convection in the Labrador Sea. However, the impact of freshwater
on convection is dependent on whether or not it can escape the shallow,
topographically trapped boundary currents encircling the Labrador Sea.
Previous studies have estimated the transport of freshwater into the central
Labrador Sea by focusing on the role of eddies. Here, we use a Lagrangian
approach by tracking particles in a global, eddy-permitting (1∕12°)
ocean model to examine where and when freshwater in the surface 30 m enters
the Labrador Sea basin. We find that 60 % of the total freshwater in the
top 100 m enters the basin in the top 30 m along the eastern side. The
year-to-year variability in freshwater transport from the shelves to the
central Labrador Sea, as found by the model trajectories in the top 30 m, is
dominated by wind-driven Ekman transport rather than eddies transporting
freshwater into the basin along the northeast.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1812-0784 1812-0792 |