Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 5 a MDT derived from combined GOCE and altimetry, b steric height derived from the in situ
hydrographic database where the white areas in the 1,500 m reference steric height (see Fig.
4
) are filled
with steric height values representing every 100 m from 1,400 to 500 m, and c difference between (a) and
(b). The color bars represent the height contours in unit of cm. Note the different color ranges
might be related to the presence of thicker multiyear sea ice that could influence the estimation
of the MSS and thus the GOCE-based MDT. Kwok and Morrison (
2011
) did not reveal this
particular high in the MDT confined to the coastal region from IceSAT data. The latter is related
to the topographic steering of the baroclinic western branch of the NwAC (Nilsen and Nilsen
2007
), as well as eddy transport of buoyant waters from the slope branch of the NwAC into the
Lofoten Basin (Rossby et al.
2009
), which are both challenging to model. Furthermore,
although totally lacking the broadness of the NwAC, the ATL model is the only model with the
doming of the densest waters of the Nordic Seas placed in the correct basin, the Greenland
Basin.
These differences in magnitude and spatial structure of the model and GOCE-based MDTs
imply different strengths and orientations of the slopes in the MDT. In turn, the mean surface
geostrophic currents are expected to have discrepancies that subsequently will lead to differences
in the estimation of the associated transport of water masses. This is further assessed in the next
sections.
