| 1. |
- Messias, M. J, et al.
(författare)
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The Greenland Sea tracer experiment 1996–2002: Horizontal mixing and transport of Greenland Sea Intermediate Water
- 2008
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Ingår i: Progress In Oceanography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0079-6611. ; 78:1, s. 85-105
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In summer 1996, a tracer release experiment using sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) was launched in the intermediate-depth waters of the central Greenland Sea (GS), to study the mixing and ventilation processes in the region and its role in the northern limb of the Atlantic overturning circulation. Here we describe the hydrographic context of the experiment, the methods adopted and the results from the monitoring of the horizontal tracer spread for the 1996–2002 period documented by 10 shipboard surveys. The tracer marked “Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water” (GSAIW). This was redistributed in the gyre by variable winter convection penetrating only to mid-depths, reaching at most 1800 m depth during the strongest event observed in 2002. For the first 18 months, the tracer remained mainly in the Greenland Sea. Vigorous horizontal mixing within the Greenland Sea gyre and a tight circulation of the gyre interacting slowly with the other basins under strong topographic influences were identified. We use the tracer distributions to derive the horizontal shear at the scale of the Greenland Sea gyre, and rates of horizontal mixing at 10 and 300 km scales. Mixing rates at small scale are high, several times those observed at comparable depths at lower latitudes. Horizontal stirring at the sub-gyre scale is mediated by numerous and vigorous eddies. Evidence obtained during the tracer release suggests that these play an important role in mixing water masses to form the intermediate waters of the central Greenland Sea. By year two, the tracer had entered the surrounding current systems at intermediate depths and small concentrations were in proximity to the overflows into the North Atlantic. After 3 years, the tracer had spread over the Nordic Seas basins. Finally by year six, an intensive large survey provided an overall synoptic documentation of the spreading of the tagged GSAIW in the Nordic Seas. A circulation scheme of the tagged water originating from the centre of the GS is deduced from the horizontal spread of the tracer. We present this circulation and evaluate the transport budgets of the tracer between the GS and the surroundings basins. The overall residence time for the tagged GSAIW in the Greenland Sea was about 2.5 years. We infer an export of intermediate water of GSAIW from the GS of 1 to 1.85 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) for the period from September 1998 to June 2002 based on the evolution of the amount of tracer leaving the GS gyre. There is strong exchange between the Greenland Sea and Arctic Ocean via Fram Strait, but the contribution of the Greenland Sea to the Denmark Strait and Iceland Scotland overflows is modest, probably not exceeding 6% during the period under study.
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| 2. |
- Vihma, T., et al.
(författare)
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Advances in understanding and parameterization of small-scale physical processes in the marine Arctic climate system : a review
- 2014
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 14:17, s. 9403-9450
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Arctic climate system includes numerous highly interactive small-scale physical processes in the atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean. During and since the International Polar Year 2007-2009, significant advances have been made in understanding these processes. Here, these recent advances are reviewed, synthesized, and discussed. In atmospheric physics, the primary advances have been in cloud physics, radiative transfer, mesoscale cyclones, coastal, and fjordic processes as well as in boundary layer processes and surface fluxes. In sea ice and its snow cover, advances have been made in understanding of the surface albedo and its relationships with snow properties, the internal structure of sea ice, the heat and salt transfer in ice, the formation of superimposed ice and snow ice, and the small-scale dynamics of sea ice. For the ocean, significant advances have been related to exchange processes at the ice-ocean interface, diapycnal mixing, double-diffusive convection, tidal currents and diurnal resonance. Despite this recent progress, some of these small-scale physical processes are still not sufficiently understood: these include wave-turbulence interactions in the atmosphere and ocean, the exchange of heat and salt at the ice-ocean interface, and the mechanical weakening of sea ice. Many other processes are reasonably well understood as stand-alone processes but the challenge is to understand their interactions with and impacts and feedbacks on other processes. Uncertainty in the parameterization of small-scale processes continues to be among the greatest challenges facing climate modelling, particularly in high latitudes. Further improvements in parameterization require new year-round field campaigns on the Arctic sea ice, closely combined with satellite remote sensing studies and numerical model experiments.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Olsson, Anders, 1970, et al.
(författare)
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The East Greenland Current studied with CFCs and released sulphur hexafluoride
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Marine Systems. - : Elsevier BV. - 0924-7963. ; 55:1-2, s. 77-95
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The distribution and evolution of water masses along the East Greenland Current (EGC) from south of the Fram Strait to the Denmark Strait were investigated using chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and the released tracer sulphur bexafluoride (SF6) together with hydrographic data. Water masses contributing to the Denmark Strait overflow, and to some extent also contributions to the Iceland-Scotland over-flow, are discussed from observations in 1999. Special emphasis is put on the advection and mixing of Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water (GSAIW), which could be effectively traced thanks to the release of sulphur hexafluoride in the Greenland Sea Gyre in 1996. By means of the dispersion of the tracer, Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water was followed down to the Denmark Strait Sill as well as close to the Faroe-Shetland Channel. The results indicate that this water mass can contribute to both overflows within 3 years from leaving the Greenland Sea. The transformation of Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water was dominated by water from the Arctic Ocean, especially by isopycnal mixing with upper Polar Deep Water (uPDW) but, to a less extent, also by Canadian Basin Deep Water. A mixture of Greenland Sea Arctic Intermediate Water and upper Polar Deep Water was lifted 500 m on its way through southwestern Iceland Sea, to a depth shallow enough to let it reach the sill of the Denmark Strait from where it can be incorporated in the densest layer of the overflow. The observations show contributions to the Denmark Strait overflow from both the East Greenland Current and the Iceland Sea. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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