A Lagrangian study of pathways and mixing of Arctic and Atlantic waters in the Norwegian Sea. Part II: Analysis and Synthesis

Scientists at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) and at the University of Rhode Island (URI) have completed a 4 years long collaborative field project in the Nordic Seas. The circulation of the Atlantic Water (AW) and the Arctic Intermediate Water (AIW) have been studied using acoustically tracked subsurface RAFOS floats. This has yielded large data sets with new information on the circulation at these levels (~800m and ~200m) in the Nordic Seas. There are 27 trajectories from the floats in t he AIW (18 months long) and 25 trajectories (11-17 months long) from the floats in the AW. About a fourth of the floats in the intermediate water was transported from the Norwegian Sea into the North Atlantic and nearly all the floats in the AW were trans ported into the Norwegian Sea and a majority of the floats ended up in the Lofoten Basin. These data are now being processed and are soon ready for scientific analysis. The scientists at BCCR and URI propose to continue this fruitful collaboration in the data analysis and synthesis phase of the experiment. The spreading of the AIW in the Norwegian Sea and its interaction with the AW will be investigated. This includes mapping of both mean currents and eddy fields.