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  1. Dense water masses formed in the Nordic Seas flow across the Greenland-Scotland Ridge and provide a major contribution to the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Originally considered an important source of dense water, the Iceland Sea regained focus when the North Icelandic Jet - a current transporting dense water from the Iceland Sea into Denmark Strait - was discovered in the early 2000s. Here we use recent hydrographic data to quantify water mass transformation in the Iceland Sea and contrast present conditions with measurements from hydrographic surveys conducted four decades earlier. We demonstrate that substantial changes in the large-scale hydrographic structure and in the properties of the locally formed dense waters have taken place over this period in concert with a retreating ice edge and diminished ocean-to-atmosphere heat fluxes. This development has impacted the properties of the dense water masses available to supply the North Icelandic Jet. 
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  2. The dense outflow through Denmark Strait is the largest contributor to the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. While its hydrographic structure is well documented, a full description of the velocity field across the strait remains incomplete. Here we analyze a set of 22 shipboard hydrographic and velocity sections occupied along the Látrabjarg transect at the Denmark Strait sill, obtained over the time period 1993-2018. The sections provide the first complete view of the kinematic components at the sill: the shelfbreak East Greenland Current (EGC), the combined flow of the Separated EGC and the North Icelandic Jet (NIJ), and the northward flowing North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC). We deconstruct the dense overflow in terms of water mass constituents and flow components, demonstrating that the combined EGC branches and NIJ transport comparable amounts. A strong cyclonic structure was present in two-thirds of the occupations, which is thought to be due to the combined effect of eddies and wind. Strong negative wind stress curl north of the strait intensifies the separated EGC, while the enhanced northerly winds under these conditions strengthen the NIIC and cause it to shift the west. Both the cyclonic and non-cyclonic flow states can be super-critical in different parts of the strait, leading to symmetric instability and enhanced mixing. A proxy is used to assess this condition in a larger set of shipboard crossings with hydrography only, elucidating the degree to which mesoscale features drive such mixing. 
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  3. A high-resolution numerical model, together with in situ and satellite observations, is used to explore the nature and dynamics of the dominant high-frequency (from one day to one week) variability in Denmark Strait. Mooring measurements in the center of the strait reveal that warm water “flooding events” occur, whereby the North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC) propagates offshore and advects subtropical-origin water northward through the deepest part of the sill. Two other types of mesoscale processes in Denmark Strait have been described previously in the literature, known as “boluses” and “pulses,” associated with a raising and lowering of the overflow water interface. Our measurements reveal that flooding events occur in conjunction with especially pronounced pulses. The model indicates that the NIIC hydrographic front is maintained by a balance between frontogenesis by the large-scale flow and frontolysis by baroclinic instability. Specifically, the temperature and salinity tendency equations demonstrate that the eddies act to relax the front, while the mean flow acts to sharpen it. Furthermore, the model reveals that the two dense water processes—boluses and pulses (and hence flooding events)—are dynamically related to each other and tied to the meandering of the hydrographic front in the strait. Our study thus provides a general framework for interpreting the short-time-scale variability of Denmark Strait Overflow Water entering the Irminger Sea.

     
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  4. null (Ed.)
    Abstract The Iceland Greenland Seas Project (IGP) is a coordinated atmosphere–ocean research program investigating climate processes in the source region of the densest waters of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. During February and March 2018, a field campaign was executed over the Iceland and southern Greenland Seas that utilized a range of observing platforms to investigate critical processes in the region, including a research vessel, a research aircraft, moorings, sea gliders, floats, and a meteorological buoy. A remarkable feature of the field campaign was the highly coordinated deployment of the observing platforms, whereby the research vessel and aircraft tracks were planned in concert to allow simultaneous sampling of the atmosphere, the ocean, and their interactions. This joint planning was supported by tailor-made convection-permitting weather forecasts and novel diagnostics from an ensemble prediction system. The scientific aims of the IGP are to characterize the atmospheric forcing and the ocean response of coupled processes; in particular, cold-air outbreaks in the vicinity of the marginal ice zone and their triggering of oceanic heat loss, and the role of freshwater in the generation of dense water masses. The campaign observed the life cycle of a long-lasting cold-air outbreak over the Iceland Sea and the development of a cold-air outbreak over the Greenland Sea. Repeated profiling revealed the immediate impact on the ocean, while a comprehensive hydrographic survey provided a rare picture of these subpolar seas in winter. A joint atmosphere–ocean approach is also being used in the analysis phase, with coupled observational analysis and coordinated numerical modeling activities underway. 
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  5. Abstract

    Data from repeat hydrographic surveys over the 25‐year period 1993 to 2017, together with satellite altimetry data, are used to quantify the temporal and spatial variability of the North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC), East Icelandic Current (EIC), and the water masses they advect around northern Iceland. We focus on the warm, salty Atlantic Water (AW) flowing northward through Denmark Strait and the cooler, fresher, denser Atlantic‐origin Overflow Water (AtOW) which has circulated cyclonically around the rim of the Nordic Seas before being advected to the Iceland slope via the EIC. The absolute geostrophic velocities reveal that approximately half of the NIIC recirculates just north of Denmark Strait, while the remaining half merges with the EIC to form a single current that extends to the northeast of Iceland, with no further loss in transport of either component. The AW percentage decreases by 75% over this distance, while the AtOW percentage is higher than that of the AW in the merged current. The NIIC and merged NIIC‐EIC are found to be baroclinically unstable, which causes the flow to become increasingly barotropic as it progresses around Iceland. A seasonal accounting of the water masses within the currents indicates that only in springtime is the NIIC dominated by AW inflow north of Denmark Strait. Overall, there is considerably more seasonal and along‐stream variability in the properties of the flow prior to the merging of the NIIC and EIC. Over the 25‐year time period, the NIIC became warmer, saltier, and increased in volume transport.

     
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