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Seasonal variability of the East Greenland Coastal Current
Author(s) -
Bacon Sheldon,
Marshall Abigail,
Holliday N. Penny,
Aksenov Yevgeny,
Dye Stephen R.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1002/2013jc009279
Subject(s) - oceanography , buoyancy , current (fluid) , arctic , climatology , salinity , environmental science , forcing (mathematics) , seawater , sea ice , ocean current , flux (metallurgy) , geology , atmospheric sciences , physics , quantum mechanics , materials science , metallurgy
The East Greenland Coastal Current (EGCC) is characterized as cold, low‐salinity polar waters flowing equatorward on the east Greenland shelf. It is an important conduit of freshwater from the Arctic Ocean, but our present understanding of it is poor, outside of an assortment of measurements which stem mainly from summertime visits by research vessels. This manuscript first describes measurements from moored instruments deployed on the East Greenland shelf (∼63°N) between 2000 and 2004. The measurements are then used to show that a high‐resolution coupled ice‐ocean global general circulation model supports a realistic representation of the EGCC. The results show that the EGCC exists throughout the year and is stronger in winter than in summer. The model EGCC seawater transports are a maximum (minimum) in February (August), at 3.8 (1.9) × 10 6 m 3 s −1 . Freshwater transports, including modeled estimates of sea ice transport and referenced to salinity 35.0, are a maximum (minimum) in February (August) at 106 (59) × 10 3 m 3 s −1 . The model results show that wind and buoyancy forcing are of similar importance to EGCC transport. An empirical decomposition of the buoyancy‐forced transport into a buoyancy‐only component and a coupled wind and buoyancy component indicates the two to be of similar magnitude in winter. The model annual mean freshwater flux of ∼80–90 × 10 3 m 3 s −1 approaches 50% of the net rate of Arctic freshwater gain, underlining the climatic importance of the EGCC.