Observations of Water Mass Modification and Cross-Shelf Exchange at Narsaq Trough, Greenland

Abstract

Cross-shelf exchange at Greenland's continental margins transports warm waters toward the glacier margins and freshwater offshore into the convective basins of the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas. Several studies have suggested that the exchange is enhanced by the presence of deep, glacial troughs, but observations from Greenland's troughs are scarce. This work presents data from a ship-based survey at Narsaq Trough, a wide, branched trough in southwest Greenland, during the summer of 2022. We use Conductivity-Temperature-Depth-Oxygen profiles, water samples for nutrient analysis, and underway current profiles to compare the water mass properties and distribution inside and outside the trough, describe the flow-field in and around the trough, and estimate mixing in the trough. Narsaq Trough is found to provide a pathway for warm, salty Atlantic Water to intrude onto the continental shelf where these waters are mixed with the overlying cold, fresh Polar Water. As a result, waters in the trough are fresher, oxygen-enriched, macronutrient-depleted, and at times colder, relative to the unmodified Atlantic Water offshore. This trough-modified water has the potential to freshen and oxygenate the flow on the shelf-break and/or reduce the thermal forcing of waters in the adjacent fjord, limiting ice melt.