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| Titel |
Transport of volume, heat, and salt towards the Arctic in the Faroe Current 1993–2013 |
| VerfasserIn |
B. Hansen, K. M. H. Larsen, H. Hátún, R. Kristiansen, E. Mortensen, S. Østerhus |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1812-0784
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Ocean Science ; 11, no. 5 ; Nr. 11, no. 5 (2015-09-22), S.743-757 |
| Datensatznummer |
250117291
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/os-11-743-2015.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The flow of warm and saline water from the Atlantic Ocean, across the
Greenland–Scotland Ridge, into the Nordic Seas – the Atlantic inflow – is
split into three separate branches. The most intense of these branches is the
inflow between Iceland and the Faroe Islands (Faroes), which is focused into
the Faroe Current, north of the Faroes. The Atlantic inflow is an integral
part of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC), which is projected
to weaken during the 21st century and might conceivably reduce the oceanic
heat and salt transports towards the Arctic. Since the mid-1990s,
hydrographic properties and current velocities of the Faroe Current have been
monitored along a section extending north from the Faroe shelf. From these in
situ observations, time series of volume, heat, and salt transport have
previously been reported, but the high variability of the transport has made
it difficult to establish whether there are trends. Here, we present results
from a new analysis of the Faroe Current where the in situ observations have
been combined with satellite altimetry. For the period 1993 to 2013, we find
the average volume transport of Atlantic water in the Faroe Current to be
3.8 ± 0.5 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) with a heat
transport relative to 0 °C of 124 ± 15 TW (1 TW = 1012 W). Consistent with other results for the Northeast Atlantic
component of the THC, we find no indication of weakening. The transports of
the Faroe Current, on the contrary, increased. The overall increase over the
2 decades of observation was 9 ± 8 % for volume transport and
18 ± 9 % for heat transport (95 % confidence intervals).
During the same period, the salt transport relative to the salinity of the
deep Faroe Bank Channel overflow (34.93) more than doubled, potentially
strengthening the feedback on thermohaline intensity. The increased heat and
salt transports are partly caused by the increased volume transport and
partly by increased temperatures and salinities of the Atlantic inflow, which
have been claimed mainly to be caused by the weakened subpolar gyre. |
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