On the fate of the Irminger Current water and its impact on the convection region in the Irminger Sea – a Lagrangian model study

Fried, Nora; Gelderloos, Renske; Tooth, Oliver J.; Katsman, Caroline A.; de Jong, M. Femke

doi:10.5194/os-22-1763-2026

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1763-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1763-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 3

Research article

|

03 Jun 2026

Research article |

| 03 Jun 2026

On the fate of the Irminger Current water and its impact on the convection region in the Irminger Sea – a Lagrangian model study

Nora Fried, Renske Gelderloos, Oliver J. Tooth, Caroline A. Katsman, and M. Femke de Jong

Data sets

Lagrangian Particle tracks from the Irminger Sea Renske Gelderloos https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20154901

Model code and software

oj-tooth/lt_toolbox: v0.1.0 (v0.1) O. Tooth https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15838857

Short summary

This study investigates how much warm and saline subtropical-origin water flowing in the Irminger Current (IC) can enter the Irminger Sea convection region by releasing virtual particles in an ocean model. We show that one quarter of IC waters enter the convection region with the potential to increase local stratification. Our results suggest that changes in the water mass properties of the IC have the potential to influence the strength of deep convection in the Irminger Sea.