A 70-year perspective on water-mass transformation in the Greenland Sea: From thermobaric to thermal convection

Abstract

The hydrography of the central Greenland Sea was reconstructed from observations including bottle measurements, Conductivity/ Temperature/ Depth (CTD) measurements, and Argo floats for the period 1950 to 2020. Greenland Sea Deep Water was renewed during bottom-reaching convection prior to the mid-1980s, facilitated by the thermobaric effect. During a period of shallow convection in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a stratification maximum formed and isolated the deep from the intermediate Greenland Sea. As a consequence, convection was limited to depths shallower than 2000 m during the past decades and a new class of intermediate water formed instead of deep water. The initial cause for the formation of the stratification maximum was a near-surface freshwater anomaly. A subsequent, rapid temperature and salinity increase in the upper 2000 m resulted in an overall density reduction of the intermediate water which strengthened the stratification maximum. Along with the transition from formation of deep water to formation of intermediate water, the Greenland Sea became temperature-stratified at intermediate depths. This regime-shift in stratification can be traced to increased temperature and salinity in the inflowing Atlantic-origin Water. Below the stratification maximum, the Greenland Sea Deep Water became warmer and more saline, predominantly caused by lateral mixing with deep water masses from adjacent basins. The hydrographic changes in the Greenland Sea were investigated in the context of a reduction of the sea-ice extent and associated changes in winter heat loss. While interannual variability of convection depth may depend on atmospheric forcing, we found that the decadal variability of water-mass transformation in the Greenland Sea was largely determined by the hydrographic structure of the water column.