Large Scale Salinity Anomaly Has Triggered the Recent Decline of Winter Convection in the Greenland Sea
Type | Article | ||||||||
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Date | 2023-11 | ||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||
Author(s) | Almeida Lucas1, Kolodziejczyk Nicolas1, Lique Camille2 | ||||||||
Affiliation(s) | 1 : University Brest CNRS Ifremer IRD Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS) IUEM Plouzané France 2 : University Brest CNRS Ifremer IRD Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS) IUEM Plouzané France |
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Source | Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union (AGU)), 2023-11 , Vol. 50 , N. 21 , P. e2023GL104766 (10p.) | ||||||||
DOI | 10.1029/2023GL104766 | ||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 1 | ||||||||
Keyword(s) | convection, physical oceanography, climate system, Nordic Seas, Greenland Sea, oceanography | ||||||||
Abstract | The Greenland Sea is a key region for open ocean convection and ventilation, which exhibit a large variability with periods of strong convection and shutdowns. After a long period of weak winter convection (from the 1970s to the early 1990s), a recovery has been reported, beginning in the 1990s and intensifying in the early 2000s until 2013. Using ISAS, an optimal interpolation product based on Argo observations, we document a recent significant weakening of deep convection between 2014 and 2020, accompanied by a continuous warming of the mixed layer but also a freshening after 2014. These hydrographic changes likely increase the ocean stratification and precondition the shutdown of winter convection. We suggest that these property changes result from a shift of the large scale atmospheric circulation, affecting the source of Atlantic Water to the Nordic seas, causing a freshening of about −0.1 g kg−1 that spreads into the Greenland Sea. |
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