TY - JOUR
T1 - Transport and Evolution of the East Reykjanes Ridge Current
AU - Koman, G.
AU - Johns, W. E.
AU - Houk, A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the captains and crews of the R/V Knorr, R/V Pelagia, RRS Discovery, and R/V Neil Armstrong for their hospitality aboard their vessels and for helping to ensure the completion of this research. We would also like to thank Dr. Femke de Jong and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research for access to data from their eastern most mooring (IC4) along the OSNAP line. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Tiago Biló for the help with the Argo‐based North Atlantic climatological mean absolute geostrophic velocity profiles. These data can be found in the University of Miami's Scholarly Repository at https://doi.org/10.17604/cf5z‐x124 . Finally, we would like to thank the National Science Foundation for funding this research through grants OCE‐1259398 and OCE‐1756231.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the captains and crews of the R/V Knorr, R/V Pelagia, RRS Discovery, and R/V Neil Armstrong for their hospitality aboard their vessels and for helping to ensure the completion of this research. We would also like to thank Dr. Femke de Jong and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research for access to data from their eastern most mooring (IC4) along the OSNAP line. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Tiago Bil? for the help with the Argo-based North Atlantic climatological mean absolute geostrophic velocity profiles. These data can be found in the University of Miami's Scholarly Repository at https://doi.org/10.17604/cf5z-x124. Finally, we would like to thank the National Science Foundation for funding this research through grants OCE-1259398 and OCE-1756231.
Publisher Copyright:
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - This study of the first continuous multiyear observations of the East Reykjanes Ridge Current (ERRC) reveals a highly variable, mostly barotropic southwestward flow with a mean transport of 10–13 Sv. The ERRC effectively acts as a western boundary current in the Iceland Basin on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes Ridge. As part of the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP), continuous measurements of the ERRC have been maintained for the first time using acoustic Doppler current profilers, current meters, and dynamic height moorings at six mooring sites near 58°N since 2014. Together with satellite altimetry and Argo profile and drift data, the mean transport, synoptic variability, water mass properties, and upstream and downstream pathways of the ERRC are examined. Results show that the ERRC forms in the northeastern Iceland Basin at the convergence of surface waters from the North Atlantic Current and deeper Icelandic Slope Water formed along the Iceland-Faroe Ridge. The ERRC becomes denser as it cools and freshens along the northern and western topography of the Basin before retroflecting over the Reykjanes Ridge near 59°N into the Irminger Current. Analysis of the flow-weighted density changes along the ERRC's path reveals that it is responsible for about one third of the net potential density change of waters circulating around the rim of the subpolar gyre.
AB - This study of the first continuous multiyear observations of the East Reykjanes Ridge Current (ERRC) reveals a highly variable, mostly barotropic southwestward flow with a mean transport of 10–13 Sv. The ERRC effectively acts as a western boundary current in the Iceland Basin on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes Ridge. As part of the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP), continuous measurements of the ERRC have been maintained for the first time using acoustic Doppler current profilers, current meters, and dynamic height moorings at six mooring sites near 58°N since 2014. Together with satellite altimetry and Argo profile and drift data, the mean transport, synoptic variability, water mass properties, and upstream and downstream pathways of the ERRC are examined. Results show that the ERRC forms in the northeastern Iceland Basin at the convergence of surface waters from the North Atlantic Current and deeper Icelandic Slope Water formed along the Iceland-Faroe Ridge. The ERRC becomes denser as it cools and freshens along the northern and western topography of the Basin before retroflecting over the Reykjanes Ridge near 59°N into the Irminger Current. Analysis of the flow-weighted density changes along the ERRC's path reveals that it is responsible for about one third of the net potential density change of waters circulating around the rim of the subpolar gyre.
KW - East Reykjanes Ridge Current
KW - Iceland Basin
KW - Icelandic Slope Water
KW - North Atlantic Current
KW - North Atlantic subpolar gyre
KW - overturning circulation
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U2 - 10.1029/2020JC016377
DO - 10.1029/2020JC016377
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096693589
VL - 125
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
SN - 2169-9291
IS - 10
M1 - e2020JC016377
ER -