Role of air–sea fluxes and ocean surface density in the production  of deep waters in the eastern subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic

Petit, Tillys; Lozier, M. Susan; Josey, Simon A.; Cunningham, Stuart A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-1353-2021

Articles | Volume 17, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-1353-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-1353-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 5

Research article

|

05 Oct 2021

Research article |

| 05 Oct 2021

Role of air–sea fluxes and ocean surface density in the production of deep waters in the eastern subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic

Tillys Petit, M. Susan Lozier, Simon A. Josey, and Stuart A. Cunningham

Data sets

EN4 quality controlled ocean data: Download EN.4.2.1 Met Office https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/en4/download-en4-2-1.html#l09_profiles

Data OSNAP https://www.o-snap.org/observations/data/

ERA5 ECMWF https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5

Short summary

Recent work has highlighted the dominant role of the Irminger and Iceland basins in the production of North Atlantic Deep Water. From our analysis, we find that air–sea fluxes and the ocean surface density field are both key determinants of the buoyancy-driven transformation in the Iceland Basin. However, the spatial distribution of the subpolar mode water (SPMW) transformation is most sensitive to surface density changes as opposed to the direct influence of the air–sea fluxes.