A deep convective chimney in the winter greenland sea

Abstract

During two cruises to the Greenland Sea in winter 2001 a narrow convective chimney extending from the surface to a depth exceeding 2400 meters was discovered and mapped in detail. The feature was observed to be stable over a period of a month and its centre moved only 700 m in that time; its diameter was only 10 km. At a time when deep convection is thought to have ceased in the Greenland Sea the existence of this feature is a challenge to our understanding of the causes and impacts of open ocean winter convection.