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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik
UP 5: Postersession
UP 5.26: Poster
Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 16:40–18:10, GW2 B3010
Variability of Labrador Sea Water transport through Flemish Pass in 2015-2016 — •Fanny Wischnewski1, Dagmar Kieke1,2, Linn Schneider1, and Monika Rhein1,2 — 1IUP, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany — 2MARUM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Labrador Sea Water (LSW), the lightest component of North Atlantic Deep Water, originates in the Labrador Sea and is transported southward by the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC). At the western margin of the subpolar North Atlantic at about 46°N up to 48°N, Flemish Pass represents an alternative pathway to the major DWBC pathway bypassing the underwater plateau Flemish Cap further offshore. Constrained by the Grand Banks and by Flemish Cap, Flemish Pass is a shallow underwater passage with a sill depth of 1200m that avoids zones of potential stirring and potential deflection of water masses into the interior North Atlantic. The passage allows about 20% of upper LSW to pass southward, and combined with the volume flowing within the DWBC around Flemish Cap, this makes an important contribution to the cold return branch of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). On the basis of sustained mooring data and ship-based measurements, recorded in 2015 and 2016, estimations of the recent volume transport of LSW through Flemish Pass are undertaken, and the variability of the resulting transport time series and possible variability-generating processes are analyzed. The findings of this study will contribute to a better understanding of this shallow cold return branch of the AMOC.