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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L07603, doi:10.1029/2004GL022188, 2005

Measured volume, heat, and salt fluxes from the Atlantic to the Arctic Mediterranean

Svein Østerhus

Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway


William R. Turrell

Marine Laboratory, Oceanographic Research and Services, Fisheries Research Services, Aberdeen, UK


Steingrímur Jónsson

Marine Research Institute and University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland


Bogi Hansen

Fisheries Laboratory of the Faroes, Torshavn, Faroe Islands


Abstract

The flow of warm and saline Atlantic water towards the Arctic crosses the Greenland-Scotland Ridge in three current branches. Since the mid 1990's, extensive monitoring with quasi-permanent moorings and regular CTD cruises has been in operation on three sections crossing the branches. Averaged over the years 1999 to 2001, values of volume, heat (relative to 0°C) and salt flux due to the total Atlantic inflow across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge into the Nordic Seas are estimated as 8.5 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3·s−1), 313·1012 W, and 303·106 kg·s−1. In this period, the average temperature and salinity of the Atlantic inflow were 8.5°C and 35.25, respectively. Within the observational uncertainty, we do not find any significant seasonal variation of the volume flux, but a negative correlation between the inflow flux through the Faroe-Shetland Channel and through the other two gaps was indicated.

Received 5 December 2004; accepted 14 March 2005; published 7 April 2005.

Index Terms: 4512 Oceanography: Physical: Currents; 4532 Oceanography: Physical: General circulation (1218, 1222); 4536 Oceanography: Physical: Hydrography and tracers; 4215 Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability (1616, 1635, 3305, 3309, 4513).

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Citation: Østerhus, S., W. R. Turrell, S. Jónsson, and B. Hansen (2005), Measured volume, heat, and salt fluxes from the Atlantic to the Arctic Mediterranean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L07603, doi:10.1029/2004GL022188.