I have just realized that I haven’t talked about my research here at WHOI. I’m currently working in the A-TWAIN project. A-TWAIN stands for Long-term variability and trends in the Atlantic Water inflow region, and it is an international project between the U.S. and Norway. This project studies the inflow of Atlantic Water north of Svalbard, the so-called Svalbard Branch (see map beneath, the study area is the yellow box).
During the first year I used data from an oceanographic cruise that took place in September 2012 north of Svalbard, check the website is really cool http://www.whoi.edu/warmingarctic/index.php Results from this first year showed that during the survey the winds were light and there was no pack-ice. The inflow of AW was observed as a warm and salty layer nearly 40 km wide, flowing eastward in the depth range 75-500m. The current generally flows parallel to the shelf-break, but it meanders and is able to generate eddies. Even though two distinct currents transporting AW emerge from Fram Strait into the Arctic Ocean (the Yermak and Svalbard branches (YB and SB)), at our study area they appear as a single, combined flow. A small portion of this boundary current enters in the Kvitøya Trough, but its warm and salty signature is quickly eroded. You can check my publication in this website (is number 8). For this second year as a postdoc, I have a one year-long time series from a mooring array which should provide us with a better understanding of the Atlantic Water boundary current. |
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