On the Sources of North Atlantic Deep Water

Abstract

Because the volumetric census of deep and bottom water in the North Atlantic Ocean consists of three isolated linear ridges along which heat and salt flow through the main volumetric mode (and point of intersections). It is possible to deduce the expected ratio of heat flux and ratio of salt fluxes measured in the Denmark Strait overflow off Greenland and in the Antarctic Bottom Water near the equator. The weakly stratified layers of North Atlantic Deep Water fall on the nearly linear ridge at temperatures above that of the mode. There is an incompatibility between observed ratio and deduced ratio. It is predicted that a remeasurement of the flux of Antarctic Bottom Water near the equator will show that the previous determination of 4 deg N is unrepresentatively low. North Atlantic Deep Water, Antarctic Bottom Water, Abyssal Circulation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA270854

Entities

People

  • Henry Stommel
  • James Luyten
  • Michael Mccartney

Organizations

  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Bottom Waters
  • Cold Water
  • Deep Water
  • Diffusion
  • Greenland
  • Heat Flux
  • North Atlantic Ocean
  • Norwegian Sea
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Physical Oceanography
  • Ridges
  • Salinity
  • Salt Water
  • Topography
  • Water

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Polar and Arctic Studies
  • Regression Analysis.