Arctic Ocean deep water masses in the western Iceland Sea

Abstract

The Icelandic‐Danish contribution to the international Greenland Sea Project was devoted to a study of the distribution and transport of water masses in the Western Iceland Sea. Each year in September from 1987 to 1991, temperature and salinity were observed on a station net in the area off east Greenland from the Denmark Strait in the south to 72°30′N. The data reveal that the deep water column of the western Iceland Sea is occupied by a number of slightly different water masses, which all can be traced back to a formation in the Arctic Ocean. It is especially noticeable that in some years almost undiluted Eurasian Basin Deep Water can be observed as far south as the Denmark Strait.