Collaborative Research: Export Pathways from the Subpolar North Atlantic; with A. Bower, WHOI

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number 0136098 Bower / Lozier This project will collect RAFOS float data, hydrographic data and altimetry to pursue a greater understanding of the pathways of waters exiting the subpolar regions. Sequentially released, acoustically-tracked, RAFOS floats will be deployed at the Labrador Sea Water level in the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) along the western boundary of the Labrador Sea. The floats will be released on a seasonal basis for three years and they will be tracked as they transit through the junction in pathways near Flemish Cap. These observations will also be used to address an apparent contradiction between existing theory of the export of newly ventilated waters from the sub-polar regions via the DWBC and recent drifter tracks that show the profiling floats turning eastward along the subpolar-subtropical gyre boundary. The new data will also be used to address hypothesis related to the structure of the narrow DWBC path, the temporal variability and intermittency in Labrador Sea Water pathways, the extent to which the deep ocean is ventilated, and the time scale of that ventilation.