HR: 0830h
AN: OS21C-1144    [PDF]
TI: Circulation and Fluxes in the Nordic Seas and Exchanges with the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans
AU: * Bacon, S
EM: S.Bacon@soc.soton.ac.uk
AF: Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock, Southampton, SO143ZH United Kingdom
AU: Hawker, E
EM: ejha@soc.soton.ac.uk
AF: Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock, Southampton, SO143ZH United Kingdom
AB: The Nordic Seas provide the main oceanic connection between the Arctic and the deep global oceans via dense overflows between Greenland and Scotland, into the North Atlantic. The inflow of warm, salty Atlantic waters and the outflow of ice and cold, fresh Arctic waters form two major components of the Nordic Sea circulation, and influence both the long-term variability of the overflows into the North Atlantic, and the formation mechanisms of Denmark Strait Overflow Water. We have a unique data set, collected under the auspices of the UK Natural Environment Research Council's thematic programme ARCICE (Arctic Sea Ice and Environmental Variability), of near synoptic hydrographic and LADCP (lowered acoustic doppler current profiler) measurements across the entire region during summer 1999. The box inverse method has been applied to the hydrographic data, using computed geostrophic velocities referenced to detided LADCP measurements. Our work aims to quantify the full Nordic Sea flux field (volume, heat and freshwater), studying the exchanges between the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Barents Sea to the east, and North Atlantic to the south, via North Atlantic Current inflow and the Denmark Strait and Iceland-Scotland overflows. An understanding of the circulation and exchanges of this region is vital for any consideration of the implications of high latitude climate change to variability in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation and consequences for regional (European) climate.
UR: http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/JRD/HYDRO/shb/arcice/arcice.php3
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
DE: 4532 General circulation
DE: 9315 Arctic region
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting