skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Attention:

The NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) system and access will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET on Friday, May 16 until 2:00 AM ET on Saturday, May 17 due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Buoyancy forcing and the subpolar Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
The North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and its variability are examined in terms of the overturning in density space and diapycnal water mass transformation. The magnitude of the mean overturning is similar to the surface water mass transformation, but the density and properties of these waters are modified by diapycnal mixing. Surface waters are progressively densified while circulating cyclonically around the subpolar gyre, with the densest waters and deepest convection occurring in the Labrador Sea and Nordic Seas. The eddy-driven interaction between the convective interior and boundary currents is a key to the export of dense waters from marginal seas. Due to the multitude of pathways of dense waters within the subpolar gyre, as well as mixing with older waters, waters exiting the subpolar gyre have a wide range of ages, with a mean age on the order of a decade. As a result, interannual changes in water mass transformation are mostly balanced locally and do not result in changes in export to the subtropics. Only persistent changes in water mass transformation result in changes in export to the subtropics. The dilution of signals from upstream water mass transformation suggests that variability in export of dense waters to the subtropics may be controlled by other processes, including interaction of dense waters with the energetic upper ocean. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Atlantic overturning: new observations and challenges’.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2219707
PAR ID:
10537775
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Royal Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Volume:
381
Issue:
2262
ISSN:
1364-503X
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; (, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)
    Abstract A recent study using the first 21 months of the OSNAP time series revealed that the export of dense waters in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic―as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC)―can be almost wholly attributed to surface‐forced water mass transformation (SFWMT) in the Irminger and Iceland basins, thus suggesting a minor role for other means of transformation, such as diapycnal mixing. To understand whether this result is valid over a period that exceeds the current observational record, we use four different ocean reanalysis products to investigate the relationship between surface buoyancy forcing and dense water production in this region. We also reexplore this relationship with the now available 6‐year OSNAP time series. Our analysis finds that although surface transformation in the eastern subpolar gyre dominates the production of deep waters, mixing processes downstream of the Greenland Scotland Ridge are also responsible for the production of waters carried within the AMOC's lower limb both in the observations and reanalyses. Further analysis of the reanalyses shows that SFWMT partly explains MOC interannual variability, the remaining portion can be attributed to basin storage and mixing. Compared to the observations, the reanalyses exhibit stronger MOC variance but comparable SFWMT variance on interannual timescales. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; (, Ocean Science)
    Abstract. The overturning streamfunction as measured at the OSNAP (Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) mooring array represents the transformation of warm, salty Atlantic Water into cold, fresh North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). The magnitude of the overturning at the OSNAP array can therefore be linked to the transformation by air–sea buoyancy fluxes and mixing in the region north of the OSNAP array. Here, we estimate these water mass transformations using observational-based, reanalysis-based and model-based datasets. Our results highlight that air–sea fluxes alone cannot account for the time-mean magnitude of the overturning at OSNAP, and therefore a residual mixing-driven transformation is required to explain the difference. A cooling by air–sea heat fluxes and a mixing-driven freshening in the Nordic Seas, Iceland Basin and Irminger Sea precondition the warm, salty Atlantic Water, forming subpolar mode water classes in the subpolar North Atlantic. Mixing in the interior of the Nordic Seas, over the Greenland–Scotland Ridge and along the boundaries of the Irminger Sea and Iceland Basin drive a water mass transformation that leads to the convergence of volume in the water mass classes associated with NADW. Air–sea buoyancy fluxes and mixing therefore play key and complementary roles in setting the magnitude of the overturning within the subpolar North Atlantic and Nordic Seas. This study highlights that, for ocean and climate models to realistically simulate the overturning circulation in the North Atlantic, the small-scale processes that lead to the mixing-driven formation of NADW must be adequately represented within the model's parameterisation scheme. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, 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. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, Geophysical Research Letters)
    Abstract The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key mechanism in the climate system, delivers warm and salty waters from the subtropical gyre to the subpolar gyre and Nordic Seas, where they are transformed into denser waters flowing southward in the lower AMOC limb. The prevailing hypothesis is that dense waters formed in the Labrador and Nordic Seas are the sources for the AMOC lower limb. However, recent observations reveal that convection in the Labrador Sea contributes minimally to the total overturning of the subpolar gyre. In this study, we show that the AMOC is instead primarily composed of waters formed in the Nordic Seas and Irminger and Iceland basins. A first direct estimate of heat and freshwater fluxes over these basins demonstrates that buoyancy forcing during the winter months can almost wholly account for the dense waters of the subpolar North Atlantic that are exported as part of the AMOC. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, Geophysical Research Letters)
    Abstract We investigate the impact of Arctic sea ice loss on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and North Atlantic climate in a coupled general circulation model (IPSL‐CM5A2) perturbation experiment, wherein Arctic sea ice is reduced until reaching an equilibrium of an ice‐free summer. After several decades we observe AMOC weakening caused by reduced dense water formation in the Iceland basin due to the warming of surface waters, and later compensated by intensification of dense water formation in the Western Subpolar North Atlantic. Consequently, AMOC slightly weakens in deep, dense waters but recovers through shallower, less dense waters overturning. In parallel, wind‐driven intensification and southeastward expansion of the subpolar gyre cause a depth‐extended cold anomaly ∼2°C around 50°N that resembles the North Atlantic “warming hole.” We conclude that compensating dense water formations drive AMOC changes following sea ice retreat and that a warming hole can develop independently of the AMOC modulation. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email