Liquid freshwater transport and Polar Surface Water characteristics in the East Greenland Current during the AO-02 Oden expedition

Abstract

Dynamical features of the East Greenland Current (EGC) are synthesized from a survey conducted by the Swedish icebreaker Oden during the International Arctic Ocean -02 expedition (AO-02) in May 2002 with emphasis on the liquid freshwater transport and Polar Surface Water. The data include hydrography and lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP) velocities in eight transects along the EGC, from the Fram Strait in the north to the Denmark Strait in the south. The survey reveals a strong confinement of the low-salinity polar water in the EGC to the continental slope/shelf-a feature of relevance for the stability of the thermohaline circulation in the Arctic Mediterranean. The southward transport of liquid freshwater in the EGC was found to vary considerably between the sections, ranging between 0.01 and 0.1 Sverdrup. Computations based on geostrophic as well as LADCP velocities give a section-averaged southward freshwater transport of 0.06 Sverdrup in the EGC during May 2002. Furthermore, Oden data suggest that the liquid freshwater transport was as large north of the Fram Strait as it was south of the Denmark Strait.

Glacier dynamics over the last quarter of a century at Helheim, Kangerdlugssuaq and 14 other major Greenland outlet glaciers

“…2). This region coincides with the location of the East Greenland Current (EGC), a surface current that flows south along the shelf break and exports fresh, cold, polar surface water from the Arctic (Nilsson et al, 2008). The East Greenland Coastal Current (EGCC), which flows closer to shore south of the Denmark Strait (Fig.…”

The interaction between sea ice and salinity-dominated ocean circulation: implications for halocline stability and rapid changes of sea ice cover

“…Further, we assume that the outflow for our "Nordic Seas" domain occurs in a baroclinic boundary current attached to a meridional boundary; analogously to how the low-salinity Arctic surface water exits from the Nordic Seas in the East Greenland Current today (e.g. Nilsson et al 2008). Thus, we assume that the basic north-south density…”

Sources and fate of freshwater exported in the East Greenland Current

“…The majority of this freshwater is thought to remain in the EGC as it flows southward along the East Greenland Shelf [Nilsson et al, 2008] ultimately reaching the Labrador Sea via the West Greenland Current (WGC) and the Labrador Current. An unquantified fraction enters the deep basins of the Nordic Seas.…”