Articles | Volume 14, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-871-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-871-2018
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
27 Aug 2018
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 27 Aug 2018

Overflow of cold water across the Iceland–Faroe Ridge through the Western Valley

Bogi Hansen, Karin Margretha Húsgarð Larsen, Steffen Malskær Olsen, Detlef Quadfasel, Kerstin Jochumsen, and Svein Østerhus

Data sets

ADCP data from the field experiment ENVOFAR ftp://www.envofar.fo/Currents/ADCP_Data

Model code and software

Physical oceanography during POSEIDON cruise POS503 D.Quadfasel https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.890699

Download
Short summary
The Western Valley is one of the passages across the Iceland–Scotland Ridge through which a strong overflow of cold, dense water has been thought to feed the deep limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), but its strength has not been known. Based on a field experiment with instruments moored across the valley, we show that this overflow branch is much weaker than previously thought and that this is because it is suppressed by the warm countercurrent in the upper layers.