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2002 LAPCOD Meeting
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The Iceland Basin as an intersection where Labrador Sea and Iceland Scotland Overflow waters meet
W Zenk, R H Kaese, T J Mueller
Institut fuer Meereskunde an der Universitaet Kiel
wzenk@ifm.uni-kiel.de(Abstract received 10/15/2002 for session A)
ABSTRACT
At intermediate depths of the Iceland Basin low-salinity Labrador Sea water encounters cold, slightly more saline watermasses that have passed the sills between East Iceland and Scotland. The resulting watermass transformation was subject of intensive studies in Kiel during the past five years. RAFOS floats belong to the prime instrumentation to reveal directly circulation patterns in the eastern part of the subpolar gyre system. We present flow paths from the interior and the flanks of the Iceland Basin demonstrating a basin-wide intermediate cyclonic gyre with distinct distributions of mean and eddy kinetic energies. Topographic control prevails along the Reykjanes Ridge. To our surprise we found persistent flow channels for entrained Island Scotland Overflow water (ISOW) at Bight Fracture Zone (~57° N), some 450 km farther to the north then previously assumed. These additional outlets seem to play a significant role in the balance of the main export gateway for ISOW, i.e. the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (52° N).
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2002 LAPCOD Meeting, Key Largo, Florida, December 12-16, 2000