Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4 Observed mean steric height for the period 1950-2008 for the reference depths a 500 m, b 1,000 m
and c 1,500 m. The color-scale increment is in cm
difference remains the same. This shift in location is in agreement with the recent findings by
Kwok and Morison (
2011
) and Morison et al. (
2012
). Overall, the MDT patterns in the model
fields for the Arctic Ocean are in reasonably good agreement with the GOCE-based MDT map.
In the central domain of the Norwegian-Greenland Seas, the suppression of the MDT in the
three models corresponding to the large-scale cyclonic circulation pattern with the northward
flowing Norwegian-North Atlantic Current (NwAC) and the southward flowing EGC is con-
sistent in location. On the other hand the magnitudes and spatial structures of the suppression
differ between the models as well as in comparison with the GOCE-based MDT pattern. The
largest suppression is found in the ATL model with a deviation from the average of -0.6 m in
the northern Greenland Sea being almost twice as large as in the GOCE-based MDT in the same
area. Similar tendencies are seen in the subpolar gyre, although the difference in the minima
between the ATL model and the GOCE-based MDT now is reduced by a factor of 2.
The most prominent discrepancies are the mismatch in the MDT along the Canadian
Archipelago and northern Greenland coast, and the models lack of higher elevations associated
with the spread of AW in the Norwegian Sea, notably around the Vøring Plateau. The former
