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1. Dynamics of Deep Recirculation Cells Offshore of the Deep Western Boundary Current in the Subtropical North Atlantic (15°–30°N)

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0184.1  

   Biló, Tiago Carrilho; Johns, William E; Zhao, Jian (January 2021, Journal of Physical Oceanography)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract The dynamics of the deep recirculation offshore of the deep western boundary current (DWBC) between 15° and 30°N within the upper North Atlantic Deep Water layer (1000 ≤ z ≤ 3000 m) is investigated with two different eddy-resolving numerical simulations. Despite some differences in the recirculation cells, our assessment of the modeled deep isopycnal circulation patterns (36.77 ≤ σ 2 ≤ 37.06 kg m −3 ) shows that both simulations predict the DWBC flowing southward along the continental slope, while the so-called Abaco Gyre and two additional cyclonic cells recirculate waters northward in the interior. These cells are a few degrees wide, located along the DWBC path, and characterized by potential vorticity (PV) changes occurring along their mean streamlines. The analysis of the mean PV budget reveals that these changes result from the action of eddy forcing that tends to erode the PV horizontal gradients. The lack of a major upper-ocean boundary current within the study region, and the fact that the strongest eddy forcing is constrained within a few hundreds of kilometers of the western boundary, suggest that the DWBC is the primary source of eddy forcing. Finally, the eddies responsible for forcing the recirculation have dominant time scales between 100 and 300 days, which correspond to the primary observed variability scales of the DWBC transport at 26.5°N. 

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2. Why Does the Deep Western Boundary Current “Leak” around Flemish Cap?

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-19-0247.1  

   Solodoch, Aviv; McWilliams, James C.; Stewart, Andrew L.; Gula, Jonathan; Renault, Lionel (July 2020, Journal of Physical Oceanography)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract The southward-flowing deep limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is composed of both the deep western boundary current (DWBC) and interior pathways. The latter are fed by “leakiness” from the DWBC in the Newfoundland Basin. However, the cause of this leakiness has not yet been explored mechanistically. Here the statistics and dynamics of the DWBC leakiness in the Newfoundland Basin are explored using two float datasets and a high-resolution numerical model. The float leakiness around Flemish Cap is found to be concentrated in several areas (hot spots) that are collocated with bathymetric curvature and steepening. Numerical particle advection experiments reveal that the Lagrangian mean velocity is offshore at these hot spots, while Lagrangian variability is minimal locally. Furthermore, model Eulerian mean streamlines separate from the DWBC to the interior at the leakiness hot spots. This suggests that the leakiness of Lagrangian particles is primarily accomplished by an Eulerian mean flow across isobaths, though eddies serve to transfer around 50% of the Lagrangian particles to the leakiness hot spots via chaotic advection, and rectified eddy transport accounts for around 50% of the offshore flow along the southern face of Flemish Cap. Analysis of the model’s energy and potential vorticity budgets suggests that the flow is baroclinically unstable after separation, but that the resulting eddies induce modest modifications of the mean potential vorticity along streamlines. These results suggest that mean uncompensated leakiness occurs mostly through inertial separation, for which a scaling analysis is presented. Implications for leakiness of other major boundary current systems are discussed. 

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3. Deep Circulation Variability through the Eastern Subpolar North Atlantic

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0487.1  

   Li, Feili; Fu, Yao; Lozier, M_Susan; Le_Bras, Isabela_A; de_Jong, M_Femke; Wang, Yuan; Sanchez-Franks, Alejandra (December 2024, Journal of Climate)

   Abstract The export of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) from the subpolar North Atlantic is known to affect the variability in the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). However, the respective impact from the transport in the upper NADW (UNADW) and lower NADW (LNADW) layers, and from the various transport branches through the boundary and interior flows, on the subpolar overturning variability remains elusive. To address this, the spatiotemporal characteristics of the circulation of NADW throughout the eastern subpolar basins are examined, mainly based on the 2014–20 observations from the transatlantic Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) array. It reveals that the time-mean transport within the overturning’s lower limb across the eastern subpolar gyre [−13.0 ± 0.5 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 10⁶m³s⁻¹)] mostly occurs in the LNADW layer (−9.4 Sv or 72% of the mean), while the lower limb variability is mainly concentrated in the UNADW layer (57% of the total variance). This analysis further demonstrates a dominant role in the lower limb variability by coherent intraseasonal changes across the region that result from a basinwide barotropic response to changing wind fields. By comparison, there is just a weak seasonal cycle in the flows along the western boundary of the basins, in response to the surface buoyancy-induced water mass transformation. 

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4. Interior Pathways of Labrador Sea Water in the North Atlantic From the Argo Perspective

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081439  

   Biló, T. C.; Johns, W. E. (March 2019, Geophysical Research Letters)

   Abstract The pathways and transports of Labrador Sea Water (LSW) within the southward‐flowing lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation are studied using 12 years of Argo profiles and subsurface Argo drift data. Consistent with previous studies, the results show clear evidence for interior pathways of LSW that separate from the western boundary near the Grand Banks and flow eastward and then southward around a large‐scale deep anticyclonic gyre in the northern subtropical Atlantic. Most of the LSW exported into the interior recirculates in the Newfoundland Basin (9.3 ± 3.5 Sv). However, approximately 3.2 ± 0.4 Sv cross the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge and flow southward east of the Azores. This branch feeds a westward quasi‐zonal pathway that recrosses the Ridge and returns to the western boundary around 30°N. 

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5. Competition Between Advected and Local Variability Determines Coherent Propagation of Labrador Sea Water Along the DWBC

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JC021241  

   Fortin, Anne‐Sophie; Lozier, M_Susan (December 2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)

   Abstract The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) is a major conduit for the equatorward export of dense waters formed in the subpolar North Atlantic and Nordic Seas that constitute the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Here, we investigate the extent to which there is coherent propagation of property anomalies along the DWBC from the Labrador Sea exit to 26.5°N. Past studies have focused on relationships between DWBC anomalies at selected sites. Here we use a hydrographic data set (EN4) that covers the time period of 1970–2020 to examine coherence continuously along the boundary current. Our findings reveal sharp differences between the upper and deep Labrador Sea Water (uLSW, dLSW). Specifically, dLSW property anomalies are highly correlated at all points downstream to the Labrador Sea exit. Furthermore, the lags that yield maximum correlations uniformly increase with distance along the boundary. uLSW, however, shows a sharp decline in coherence along the boundary such that the anomalies downstream are poorly correlated with those at the Labrador Sea exit and the lag times are not monotonic. Most of the decline in uLSW coherence occurs from the Labrador Sea exit to Flemish Cap, where local variability at uLSW densities is large. Our study sheds light on the competition between advected property variability and local property variability that impacts the identification of anomalies downstream. The uLSW and dLSW differences expressed along the DWBC are also evident offshore, consistent with past Lagrangian studies. 

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