Mesoscale eddies in the Fram Strait marginal ice zone during the 1983 and 1984 Marginal Ice Zone Experiments

During the summer Marginal Ice Zone Experiment in Fram Strait in 1983 and 1984, fourteen mesoscale eddies, in both deep and shallow water, were studied between 78 o and 81oN. Sampling combined satellite and aircraft remote sensing observations, conductivity-temperature-depth observations, drift of surface and subsurface floats and current meter measurements. Typical scales of these eddies were 20-40 km. Rotation was mainly cyclonic with a maximum speed, in several cases subsurface of up to 40 cm s-  Observations further suggest that the eddy lifetime was at least 20 to 30 days. Five generation sources are suggested for these eddies. Several of the eddies were topographically trapped, while others, primarily formed by combined baroclinic and barotropic instability, moved as much as 10-15 km d - with the mean current. The vorticity balance in the nontrapped eddies is dominated by the stretching of isopycnals accompanied by a change in the radial shear. In the most completely observed eddy south of 79oN the available potential energy exceeded the kinetic energy by a factor of 2. Quantitative estimates suggest that the abundance of these eddies enhances the ice edge melt up to 1-2 km d- 

[1]  D. Olson.  The Physical Oceanography of Two Rings Observed by the Cyclonic Ring Experiment. Part II: Dynamics , 1980 .

[2]  K. Hunkins.  Anomalous diurnal tidal currents on the Yermak Plateau , 1986 .

[3]  A. Bower,et al.  Particle pathways in the Gulf Stream , 1985 .

[4]  Ola M. Johannessen,et al.  Oceanographic conditions in the marginal ice zone north of Svalbard in early fall 1979 with an emphasis on mesoscale processes , 1983 .

[5]  R. Bourke,et al.  The East Greenland Polar Front in autumn , 1985 .

[6]  P. Killworth,et al.  A model of sea‐ice front instabilities , 1985 .

[7]  K. Bryan,et al.  Topographically generated eddies , 1976 .

[8]  T. Vinje,et al.  The ice transport through the Fram Strait , 1986 .

[9]  K. Aagaard,et al.  Toward new mass and heat budgets for the Arctic Ocean , 1975 .

[10]  S. Häkkinen.  Ice banding as a response of the coupled ice-ocean system to temporally varying winds , 1986 .

[11]  James C. McWilliams,et al.  Submesoscale, coherent vortices in the ocean , 1985 .

[12]  W. Campbell,et al.  Remote Sensing of the Fram Strait Marginal Ice Zone , 1987, Science.

[13]  Richard E. Thomson,et al.  A Cyclonic Eddy over the Continental Margin of Vancouver Island Evidence for Baroclinic Instability , 1984 .

[14]  Norman A. Phillips,et al.  Energy Transformations and Meridional Circulations associated with simple Baroclinic Waves in a two-level, Quasi-geostrophic Model , 1954 .

[15]  T. Maxworthy,et al.  Laboratory modeling of coastal upwelling , 1986 .

[16]  P. Wadhams,et al.  An ice‐water vortex at the edge of the East Greenland Current , 1983 .

[17]  Allan R. Robinson,et al.  Eddies in marine science , 1983 .

[18]  David C. Smith,et al.  Topographic generation of an eddy at the edge of the East Greenland Current , 1984 .

[19]  J. Swift,et al.  Seasonal transitions and water mass formation in the Iceland and Greenland seas , 1981 .

[20]  C. Provost,et al.  A numerical study of quasi-geostrophic flow over isolated topography , 1985, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[21]  J. Pedlosky.  Geophysical Fluid Dynamics , 1979 .

[22]  E. Josberger.  Bottom ablation and heat transfer coefficients from the 1983 Marginal Ice Zone Experiments , 1987 .

[23]  J. Gascard,et al.  Mesoscale Oceanographic Processes Beneath the Ice of Fram Strait , 1987, Science.

[24]  K. Koltermann,et al.  Large‐scale oceanography in Fram Strait during the 1984 Marginal Ice Zone Experiment , 1987 .

[25]  Lars Petter Røed,et al.  A coupled ice‐ocean model of upwelling in the marginal ice zone , 1983 .

[26]  E. Lewis,et al.  Mixing in the West Spitsbergen Current , 1984 .

[27]  D. A. Horn,et al.  MIZEX East 83/84 The summer marginal ice zone program in the Fram Strait/Greenland Sea , 1986 .

[28]  Burton G. Hurdle,et al.  The Nordic Seas , 1986 .