The East Greenland current is the major conduit by which freshwater from the Arctic reaches the North Atlantic. This is, in fact, the pathway by which the great salinity anomaly penetrated the subpolar gyre. The East Greenland current is a particularly complex system, consisting of different branches extending from the inner shelf to the upper continental slope. Despite the fact that the inner branch, the East Greenland coastal current, carries the freshest water, very little is known about this branch, largely because it is so difficult to measure due to the presence of ice. This project will define the structure of the coastal branch of the East Greenland current for the first time using an ice-strengthened ship, the James Clark Ross. Modern equipment including high-resolution hydrography, expendable profilers, and the vessel-mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) will be used to map the strength and spatial structure of the current .
Broader Impacts: By sampling the East Greenland coastal current in detail, this study will fill a major gap in our knowledge of the freshwater transport in the western subpolar North Atlantic, a key component of the climate system.
