Fresh Water Budget of the Arctic and High Latitude Mode of Atmospheric Variability

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The proposed research seeks to quantify the contribution of surface ocean currents to the interannual variability in fresh water transport from the Arctic into the Greenland and Labrador seas. It will then investigate links among this variability and atmospheric forcing, with an emphasis on modes of variability such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and will assess the roles of buoyancy fluxes and mechanical mixing in mixed layer depth as this relates to fresh water export from the Arctic. This research builds on past work by the same investigator and will integrate a 3-D, coupled ice-ocean model run for 53 years using NCEP atmospheric forcing. A simpler coupled model using a two-layer ocean will also be run, using idealized forcing and geometry, in order to clarify individual dynamic modes of the ocean-ice system and help to interpret the 3-D model simulations.