Atlantic water circulation over the Mendeleev Ridge and Chukchi Borderland from thermohaline intrusions and water mass properties

Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Aagaard, Knut; Swift, James H.; Smethie, William M.; Falkner, Kelly K.

doi:10.1029/2005jc003416

Cited by 83 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(123 reference statements)

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“…This has been observed in warm regions such as the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Mediterranean [2,3] and in the western Atlantic near the Caribbean Sea [4][5][6]. Recent observations have also shown that density staircases persist over large regions of the Arctic Ocean [7][8][9][10]. It is this case that is of particular interest because the reduction in sea ice in recent years has resulted in enhanced generation of internal gravity waves (or internal waves, for short) [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Internal wave transmission through a thermohaline staircase

Sutherland

2016

Phys. Rev. Fluids

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With the aim to predict energy transport by internal waves incident upon observed density staircases in the ocean, the theory for internal wave tunneling through a single finite-size mixed region is extended to predict the transmission of internal waves through a piecewise-constant density profile with an arbitrary number of steps. An analytic solution is found if all steps have equal vertical extent. From this solution, bounds are established for the relative incident horizontal wave number and frequency of waves that have negligible transmission, a result that is independent of the number of steps. If the step sizes vary randomly about a mean vertical extent, the transmission can be computed numerically for several random realizations. Provided the horizontal wavelength is much longer than the total vertical extent of the staircase, the standard deviation of the computed transmission coefficients is small and the mean agrees well with the analytic prediction for equally spaced steps. The results are applied to thermohaline staircases observed in the ocean in order to put lower bounds on the wavelengths of long inertia gravity waves that significantly transmit to great depth.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Internal wave transmission through a thermohaline staircase

Sutherland

2016

Phys. Rev. Fluids

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“…These intrusions increase the TS variability and disrupt the initially smooth TS curves, which indicate interaction between ambient water masses. These features have been used to trace the origin and pathways of water masses in the Arctic Ocean (e.g., Walsh and Carmack, 2003;Rudels et al, 1994Rudels et al, , 2005Woodgate et al, 2007) and identify shelf-glacier interactions (Jenkins, 1999;Stevens et al, 2016). (iii) For the salinity range > 33.5 (> 90 m depth; low halocline; pink shaded area; Figs.…”

Section: Methods Of Ctd Clusteringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic Ocean outflow and glacier–ocean interactions modify water over the Wandel Sea shelf (northeastern Greenland)

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The first-ever conductivity-temperaturedepth (CTD) observations on the Wandel Sea shelf in northeastern Greenland were collected in April-May 2015. They were complemented by CTDs taken along the continental slope during the Norwegian FRAM 2014-2015 drift. The CTD profiles are used to reveal the origin of water masses and interactions with ambient water from the continental slope and the tidewater glacier outlet. The subsurface water is associated with the Pacific water outflow from the Arctic Ocean. The underlying halocline separates the Pacific water from a deeper layer of polar water that has interacted with the warm Atlantic water outflow through the Fram Strait, recorded below 140 m. Over the outer shelf, the halocline shows numerous cold density-compensated intrusions indicating lateral interaction with an ambient polar water mass across the continental slope. At the front of the tidewater glacier outlet, colder and turbid water intrusions were observed at the base of the halocline. On the temperature-salinity plots these stations indicate a mixing line that is different from the ambient water and seems to be conditioned by the ocean-glacier interaction. Our observations of Pacific water are set within the context of upstream observations in the Beaufort Sea and downstream observations from the Northeast Water Polynya, and clearly show the modification of Pacific water during its advection across the Arctic Ocean. Moreover, ambient water over the Wandel Sea slope shows different thermohaline structures indicating the different origin and pathways of the on-shore and off-shore branches of the Arctic Ocean outflow through the western Fram Strait.

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“…The presence of intrusions usually characterizes the interleaving of one water mass into another along isopycnal surfaces in frontal zones (e.g. Walsh and Carmack, 2003;Rudels et al, 2005;Woodgate et al, 2007). In the Arctic, the interleaving typically occurs along the quasi-isohaline surfaces due to the small thermal expansion coefficient of sea water at low temperatures.…”

Section: The Storm-induced Intrusions Of Cold Subglacial Watersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Storm-induced water dynamics and thermohaline structure at the tidewater Flade Isblink Glacier outlet to the Wandel Sea (NE Greenland)

et al. 2017

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Abstract. In April 2015, an ice-tethered conductivitytemperature-depth (CTD) profiler and a down-looking acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) were deployed from the landfast ice near the tidewater glacier terminus of the Flade Isblink Glacier in the Wandel Sea, NE Greenland. The 3-week time series showed that water dynamics and the thermohaline structure were modified considerably during a storm event on 22-24 April, when northerly winds exceeded 15 m s −1 . The storm initiated downwellinglike water dynamics characterized by on-shore water transport in the surface (0-40 m) layer and compensating offshore flow at intermediate depths. After the storm, currents reversed in both layers, and the relaxation phase of downwelling lasted ∼ 4 days. Although current velocities did not exceed 5 cm s −1 , the enhanced circulation during the storm caused cold turbid intrusions at 75-95 m depth, which are likely attributable to subglacial water from the Flade Isblink Ice Cap. It was also found that the semidiurnal periodicities in the temperature and salinity time series were associated with the lunar semidiurnal tidal flow. The vertical structure of tidal currents corresponded to the first baroclinic mode of the internal tide with a velocity minimum at ∼ 40 m. The tidal ellipses rotate in opposite directions above and below this depth and cause a divergence of tidal flow, which was observed to induce semidiurnal internal waves of about 3 m height at the front of the glacier terminus.Our findings provide evidence that shelf-basin interaction and tidal forcing can potentially modify coastal Wandel Sea waters even though they are isolated from the atmosphere by landfast sea ice almost year-round. The northerly storms over the continental slope cause an enhanced circulation facilitating a release of cold and turbid subglacial water to the shelf. The tidal flow may contribute to the removal of such water from the glacial terminus.

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Atlantic water circulation over the Mendeleev Ridge and Chukchi Borderland from thermohaline intrusions and water mass properties

Cited by 83 publications

References 66 publications

Internal wave transmission through a thermohaline staircase

Internal wave transmission through a thermohaline staircase

Arctic Ocean outflow and glacier–ocean interactions modify water over the Wandel Sea shelf (northeastern Greenland)

Storm-induced water dynamics and thermohaline structure at the tidewater Flade Isblink Glacier outlet to the Wandel Sea (NE Greenland)

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