Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
Preliminary Volume Transports through Nares Strait, Summer 2003
Andreas Muenchow1
1College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, 112 Robinson Hall, Newark, DE, 19716, USA, Phone 302-831-0742, Fax 302-831-6838, muenchow@udel.edu
In 1853, Elisha Kane reported on a generally southward drift of ice from the Arctic Ocean into Baffin Bay in what would later be named Nares Strait. Little did he know that the southward transport of fresh water between Greenland and Ellesmere Island impacts ocean circulation and climate over the North-Atlantic at decadal, centennial, and longer time scales. Here I present preliminary transport estimates of the oceanic flow through Nares Strait.
In the summer of 2003 the USCGC Healy survey the area with a 75 kHz acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). This sonar estimates velocity vectors from 25-m to 400-m depth once every 4 second along the ship’s track. It provides synoptic transport and flux estimates across the 35-km wide and 350-m deep channel. The data precede future estimates of fresh water flux derived from a mooring array deployed this summer that consists of 7 ADCPs, 8 CT/CTD strings, 2 ice-profiling sonars, and 5 tide gauges. The vessel-mounted ADCP data constitute the only regional velocity observations resolving the crucial internal deformation radius.
In the summer of 2003, we find persistently average flows are southward reaching up to 0.5 m/s with substantial vertical and lateral variability. This mean flow generally opposes winds from the south. In both the ocean and atmosphere, we find strong lateral and vertical variability. This variability may not always resemble the larger, synoptic-scale, geostrophic expectations. Our observing array is ideally suited to investigate one possible pathway and dynamics of a recent, ~5 km3 abrupt, “breaking-dam” type fresh water release from Disraeli Fjord associated with the partial break-up of the Ward Hunt ice shelf just upstream from our observing array.
Abstract Categories: Drivers and Causes
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