The Rossby radius in the Arctic Ocean

Nurser, A.J.G.; Bacon, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2471-9373. 2014 The Rossby radius in the Arctic Ocean. Ocean Science, 10 (6). 967-975. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-10-967-2014

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/os-10-967-2014

Abstract/Summary

The first (and second) baroclinic deformation (or Rossby) radii are presented north of ~60° N, focusing on deep basins and shelf seas in the high Arctic Ocean, the Nordic seas, Baffin Bay, Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, derived from climatological ocean data. In the high Arctic Ocean, the first Rossby radius increases from ~5 km in the Nansen Basin to ~15 km in the central Canadian Basin. In the shelf seas and elsewhere, values are low (1–7 km), reflecting weak density stratification, shallow water, or both. Seasonality strongly impacts the Rossby radius only in shallow seas, where winter homogenization of the water column can reduce it to below 1 km. Greater detail is seen in the output from an ice–ocean general circulation model, of higher resolution than the climatology. To assess the impact of secular variability, 10 years (2003–2012) of hydrographic stations along 150° W in the Beaufort Gyre are also analysed. The first-mode Rossby radius increases over this period by ~20%. Finally, we review the observed scales of Arctic Ocean eddies.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.5194/os-10-967-2014
ISSN:	1812-0792
Date made live:	11 Dec 2014 11:45 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/509061

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-10-967-2014

ISSN:

1812-0792

Date made live:

11 Dec 2014 11:45 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/509061