Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T19:14:04.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Convection in the oceanic waters west of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

J. Meincke
J. Meincke
Affiliation:
Institut für Meereskunde, University of Hamburg, Heimhuder Strasse 71, 2000 Hamburg 13, Germany
Get access

Synopsis

Preliminary results from a winter and a summer cruise in 1984 to the area west of the U.K. continental slope are presented to discuss the structure and the spatial scales of convection. Winter convection events were found to reach a depth of 630 m with horizontal scales of the order of 50 km. The number of areas with actual convection to maximum depth was small at the particular time of the cruise, but the vertical structure in the investigated area indicated numerous convection events over a longer period. The principal vertical structure of the upper 600 m in winter was preserved until the following summer, which agreed with the age of the summer upper layer water estimated from the tritium/helium ratio. This characterises the area to be one of low advection, which can also be indirectly concluded from the fact that the northward flow of 4 Sverdrup of Atlantic Water through the Faeroe-Shetland Channel is supplied by 2 Sverdrup from the current over the continental slope west of U.K. and 2 Sverdrup of flow along the Arctic Front between Iceland and the Faeroes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 88: The Oceanography of the Rockall Channel , 1986 , pp. 127 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dickson, R. R., Gould, W. J., Griffiths, C., Medler, K. J. & Gmitrowicz, E. M. 1986. Seasonally in currents of the Rockall Channel. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 88B, 103–125.Google Scholar
Dooley, H. D. 1984. Aspects of oceanographic variability on Scottish fishing grounds. Ph.D Thesis, University of Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Dooley, H. D. & Meincke, J. 1981. Circulation and water masses in the Faroese Channels during Overflow '73. Deutsche Hydrographische Zeitschrift 34, 41–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J. 1982. θ-S relationships and water masses in the eastern North Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research 29, 1021–1033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huthnance, J. M. 1986. The Rockall slope current and shelf-edge processes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 88B, 83–101.Google Scholar
Jenkins, W. J. 1980. Tritium and 3He in the Sargasso Sea. Journal of Marine Research 38, 533–569.Google Scholar
Leetma, A. & Bunker, A. F. 1978. Updated charts of the mean annual wind stress, convergences in the Ekman layers, and Sverdrup transports in the North Atlantic. Journal of Marine Research 36, 311–322.Google Scholar
McCartney, M. S. & Talley, L. D. 1982. The Subpolar Mode Water of the North Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Physical Oceanography 12, 1169–1188.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCartney, M. S. & Talley, L. D. 1984. Warm to cold water conversion in the northern North Atlantic. Journal of Physical Oceanography 14, 922–935.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meincke, J. 1967. Die Tiefe der jahreszeitlichen Dichteschwankungen im Nordatlantischen Ozean. Kieler Meeresforschungen 23, 1–15.Google Scholar
Pollard, R. T. & Pu, S. 1985. Structure and circulation of the upper Atlantic Ocean. Progress in Oceanography 14, 443–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, M. K., Bauer, R. A. & Schroeder, E. H. 1979. Atlas of the North Atlantic-Indian Ocean monthly mean temperature and mean salinities of the surface layer. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, Ref. Pub. 18.Google Scholar
Willebrand, J. & Meincke, J. 1980. Statistical analysis of fluctuations in the Iceland-Scotland frontal zone. Deep-Sea Research 27A, 1047–1066.CrossRefGoogle Scholar