Freshwater Processes and Feedbacks in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea

Paul Glen Myers1, Xianmin Hu2, Amber M. Holdsworth3, Laura Castro de la Guardia4 and Laura C Gillard3, (1)University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Edmonton, AB, Canada, (2)Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada, (3)University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, (4)University of Alberta, Centre for Earth Observation Science, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Contact First Author: Paul Glen Myers; pmyers@ualberta.ca

Previously Published Material: Aspects presented at ASOF and FAMOS workshops, as well as Arcticnet meeting.

Abstract ID#: 34684

 

English Abstract:
Enhanced transport of low salinity water from the Arctic, as well as the Greenland ice cap, is expected to have impacts on the stratification, water formation and circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean. In this presentation, pathways of freshwater in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Bay and the sub-polar North Atlantic Ocean will be examined. Both observational data and numerical modelling will be used. Observational analyses will focus on the Labrador Current where historical sections will be used to estimate freshwater transport, its variability and locations of offshore exchange. The modelling analysis will be based on regional configurations using the NEMO model of the Arctic Ocean, Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the sub-polar North Atlantic. The impact of freshwater input from the Greenland Ice sheet on the circulation and properties of Baffin Bay will be examined. Lagrangian float tools such as Ariane will also be used to examine the pathways for freshwater from both the Arctic as well as the Greenland Ice sheet into the sub-polar North Atlantic in high resolution simulations.
Back to: The Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea Corridor: Marine Geology, Paleoceanography, and Role in the Land-Ocean Climate System I