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F-GEO-Naturvitenskap, geofag

Spatial and temporal variability of currents and transport of warm waters towards the Nordic Seas: Analysis and synthesis

Awarded: NOK 1.7 mill.

A four year program, started in 2000, based on measurements of currents, temperature and salinity across the North Atlantic between the Orkneys (UK) and Cape Farewell (Greenland) spans all warm waters flowing north in what is known as the global thermohal ine circulation (popularly known as the Conveyor Belt). While the general structure of the North Atlantic Ocean is reasonably well-known, knowledge of the currents and their variability is severely lacking. The program addresses these issues directly. The observations are made with an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and a thermo-salinograph on the Nuka Arctica, a container vessel that operates on a three week schedule between Denmark and Greenland. With the ADCP the upper ocean currents are ob tained to an absolute accuracy of a few cm/s. A three years PhD-project based on analysing of the data and numerical modeling is proposed so that a picture of the annual cycle and a measure of the interannual variability of the upper ocean circulation can be obtained. Understanding these in relation to the overlying atmospheric forcing is of fundamental climate interest. The project will be based at the University of Bergen.

Funding scheme:

F-GEO-Naturvitenskap, geofag

Thematic Areas and Topics

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