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Vertical Mixing at Intermediate Depths along the Arctic Ocean Boundary
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The remote Arctic Ocean is connected to the global oceans by the
inflow of North Atlantic Water through Fram Strait and Pacific Water
through Bering Strait. Altantic Water is thought to be modified
along its path as an intermediate-depth boundary current
(see schematic below), ultimately exiting the Arctic as a dense, cold, fresh
overflow through the Nordic Seas and Canadian
Archipelago.
This study evaluates the vertical mixing occuring in the transition layer between the cold fresh Arctic halocline and warm salty Atlantic Water at the core of the boundary current. Observations show that, despite proximity to the steep topography of continental slope, turbulent mixing is negligible with double diffusive convection dominating the vertical exchange. However, the vertical heat fluxes are an order of magnitude too small to account for the cooling and freshening trend observed alongstream. This suggests that either lateral exchange, most likely with cold fresh shelf waters, or the advected interannual/seasonal variability may also be responsible for the patterns observed. Further information is available in Lenn et al. (2009) - see references.
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