Davis Strait Transport and Freshwater Fluxes

Davis Strait is a critical site for investigating freshwater exchange between the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans and an ideal location for monitoring temporal and spatial variability of the critical upstream boundary condition for Labrador Sea convection. Fluxes through the Strait represent the net integrated Canadian Archipelago throughflow, modified by terrestrial inputs and oceanic processes during its southward transit through Baffin Bay. By the time they reach Davis Strait, Arctic waters already embody most of the transformations they undergo prior to exerting their influence on the deepwater formation sites in the Labrador Sea.

An ongoing program has characterized Davis Strait volume, freshwater and heat flux since September 2004. Measurements include continuous velocity, temperature and salinity time series collected by a moored array, autumn ship-based hydrographic sections and high-resolution sections occupied by autonomous gliders. Moored instrumentation includes novel new instruments that provide temperature and salinity measurements in the critical region neat the ice-ocean interface and measurements over the shallow Baffin and West Greenland shelves. We summarize results from the first five years of measurements (2004-2009), contrasted against climatological conditions and fluxes calculated from extensive measurements collected in 1987-1990.