Seasonal variability of the East Greenland Coastal Current

Bacon, Sheldon, Marshall, Abigail, Holliday, N. Penny, Aksenov, Yevgeny and Dye, Stephen R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4182-8475 (2014) Seasonal variability of the East Greenland Coastal Current. Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 119 (6). pp. 3967-3987. ISSN 2169-9275

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Abstract

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) × 106 m3 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) × 103 m3 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 × 103 m3 s−1 approaches 50% of the net rate of Arctic freshwater gain, underlining the climatic importance of the EGCC.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2014. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	east greenland coastal current,arctic freshwater export,mooring data,nemo ocean model,buoyancy-driven current,wind-driven current,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_below_water
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	21 Aug 2014 08:36
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2022 20:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/49969
DOI:	10.1002/2013JC009279

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