Atmospheric forcing of salinity in the overflow of Denmark Strait

[摘要] The temporal evolution of the characteristics of Denmark Strait OverflowWater (DSOW) is reconstructed using hydrographic data and compared withpossible atmospheric forcing mechanisms. It is concluded that the main factorinfluencing the DSOW characteristics at a time scale of one to several yearsis the difference in mean sea level pressure across Denmark Strait or, inother words, the wind along Denmark Strait. At these time scales upstreamchanges in the characteristics of the different water masses involved in theformation of DSOW are only of minor importance. The main process responsiblefor the observed salinity changes in the DSOW is mixing in Denmark Strait.Triggered by the wind, different water masses contribute with changingamounts to the formation of DSOW, leading to the observed changes in thesalinity of DSOW.

[学科分类] 海洋学与技术