Ocean Observing and Climate
OVAC Theme 3 - The Nordic Seas
Recent cruise tracks in the Nordic Seas; the dots show CTD stations from JR44 in summer 1999 (red), JM3 in winter 2000 (yellow) and from D242 in summer 1999 (orange).
The Nordic Seas are one of the source regions for North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). Dense water is created in the Nordic Seas and enters the North Atlantic over the system of ridges between Greenland and Scotland, with a total mean volume flow of about 6 Sv (1 Sverdrup = 10^6 cubic metres per second). About half of this overflow water passes through the Denmark Strait, between the east coast of Greenland and Iceland.
JRD has a large research effort directed at studying the formation processes, variability and dispersal of North Atlantic Deep Water. In this particular project, funded by the UK NERC's ARCICE Thematic programme, we are analysing high-resolution hydrographic sections to investigate circulation and fluxes in the Nordic Seas and their exchanges with adjacent seas inclulding the high Arctic via Fram Strait and the Barents Sea, and the Atlantic via the Iceland- Scotland gap and through Denmark Strait.
We have information from the cruises in Summer 1999 (Cats-Miaow - JR44; D242) and the following winter (JM3/2000), plus historical data series. These in situ measurements will be combined with ERS-2 altimetry to look at the formation of the overflow water and its seasonal variability.
In a separate project, a mooring array will be placed at Cape Farewell, at the southern tip of Greenland to investigate the deep western boundary current downstream of Denmark Strait.
Further Reading:
Bacon, S., 1998: Decadal variability in the outflow from the
Nordic Seas to the deep Atlantic Ocean. Nature 394, 871-874.
