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Greenland Submarine Melt Water Observed in the Labrador and Irminger Sea
Author(s) -
Rhein Monika,
Steinfeldt Reiner,
Huhn Oliver,
Sültenfuß Jürgen,
Breckenfelder Tilia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl079110
Subject(s) - oceanography , geology , salinity , submarine , greenland ice sheet , groenlandia , water mass , flux (metallurgy) , seawater , climatology , ice sheet , materials science , metallurgy
Helium and Neon distributions from 1994 to 2015 are used to identify and quantify submarine melt water (SMW) from the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Labrador and Irminger Sea. SMW fractions >0.2% (maximum 0.62 ± 0.075%) are confined in the upper 400 m of the Greenland shelf and slope and account for 12 ± 6% of the total east Greenland freshwater flux. SMW is embedded in water of different mixtures of cold and fresh Polar Water and warm and saline Atlantic Water. The resulting salinity range from that mixture exceeds the effect of SMW addition by one order of magnitude. Up to now, SMW is not detectable in the formation region of the Labrador Sea Water. Episodically, He and Ne excess anomalies are found in the deep ocean, probably introduced by the East Greenland Current spill jets.