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Tracing the sinking of dense ocean waters in the North Atlantic Ocean

Funder: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)Project code: 15727

Tracing the sinking of dense ocean waters in the North Atlantic Ocean

Description

The project “Tracing the sinking of dense ocean waters in the North Atlantic Ocean” aims at investigating the role of eddies in deep water formation (strong and deep mixing of surface and ocean waters that sets the density properties of deep ocean waters in the region) and water mass exchange in the North Atlantic with regard to climate change scenarios. Caused by global warming, an increased freshwater flux in the North Atlantic is expected, mainly originating from the melting glaciers on Greenland. These fresh and therefore light water masses are likely to interfere with the deep-water formation and water mass exchange. Unfortunately, the high eddy activity in this region makes it difficult to predict the consequences of the increased freshwater flux. Most studies so far concentrate on model simulations with a too coarse resolution (usually 1 Degree) to properly resolve the North Atlantic eddy activity. Therefore, it is questionable whether these coarse simulations correctly represent the effect of an increased freshwater flux in this region and its consequences on the global circulation. In the underlying study, we aim to use high-resolution (0.1 Degree) model data to investigate the deep-water formation and water mass exchange. For the latter, we will use Lagrangian particles to inquire the pathways of water masses leaving the North Atlantic. We will compare the sinking of these water masses with theoretical considerations that suggest a direct connection of the sinking locations with the density balance of the boundary current. These diagnostics will be performed in three different scenarios. In a control simulation (CTRL) the freshwater flux will be as estimated for present day climate. The influence of climate change will be considered in two other scenarios. In the first scenario an enhanced freshwater flux will be applied over a broad swath in the North Atlantic (between 50N and 60N) (HOSING). In the second scenario, the an enhanced freshwater flux will be applied around Greenland (GREENLAND)). Details of the described scenarios are described in Weijer et al. (2012). The above-mentioned diagnostics should be applied for all three scenarios in order to estimate the impact of ocean eddies in these different scenarios. It is thus necessary to use high-resolution (temporal and spatial) model data to perform the Lagrangian and density budget analysis to answer the underlying research questions of this project.

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