OCEANOGRAPHY 510 Handout Notes #5 Circulation and Water Masses of the Worlds Oceans 5.

1 Introduction In the foregoing discussions in this course we have concentrated on developing a framework of ideas and concepts that pertain to the large-scale ocean circulation. At this point, it is time to shift the emphasis to an examination of the observed properties of the real ocean. This is clearly a vast topic (many oceanographers spend their entire careers doing just this), and one that due to time constraints must be treated in a somewhat cursory manner. The examples given herein should, however, help to make it clear that (1) observing the ocean is not simple; (2) the nuances of the large-scale circulation of the ocean may have direct impacts on other imporant environmental concerns such as climate and sheries; and (3) in many cases, due to a lack of good observations, we cannot answer even the most elementary questions about particular aspects of ocean circulation. It is convenient to attempt to divide the overall ocean circulation into three subcategories: (1) the surface circulation; (2) the intermediate circulation; and (3) the deep circulation of the world ocean. In some sense this division is for convenience only, since ultimately it is impossible to completely decouple the ow at one level from the circulation at others. On the other hand, this is a useful classication in that a reasonable amount is known about the surface circulation of the ocean but clearly less is known as we proceed to deeper levels. This can be seen from an examination of Figures 5.1a-e, taken from the book of Worthington (1976). The N. Atlantic circulation scheme devised by Worthington is based on hydrographic data collected along 12 sections, during a number of expeditions between 1954 and 1967; although many other investigators have offered equally plausible counterinterpretations to these data, Worthingtons circulation is useful for suggesting how different the subsurface circulation in the ocean might be from its better studied surface counterpart. In gure 5.1a, the upper ocean circulation in the N. Atlantic subtropical gyre according to Worthington (temperatures > 17 C), we see a westwardly intensied Gulf Stream that increases its transport from 20 Sverdrups (n.b. 1 Sverdrup = 106 m3 /sec) in the Florida Straits to a maximum of 41 Sverdrups downstream of Cape Hatteras. Much of this increase is due to a rather strong recirculation gyre on the south side of the Gulf Stream. Additional pathways for the return ow at the surface are through the Carribean and the Gulf of Mexico. Overall, the surface gyre in the subtropics lls about half the basin. In the upper-thermocline layer (temperatures between 12 C and 17 C; Figure 5.1b) many features of the surface circulation continue to be present, though generally the volume transports in this layer are smaller than those at the surface. In addition, a relatively small-scale, second gyre north of the main subtropical gyre appears at this level, having a volume transport comparable to the main subtropical gyre. At yet deeper levels (the mid-thermocline layer, with temperatures between 7 and 12 C, shown in Figure 5.1c) the volume transport of the circulation is further reduced in the main subtropical gyre, but the strength of the northern gyre increases. This trend becomes even more evident in the lower-thermocline layer (temperatures between 4 and 7 C, shown in Figure 5.1d), where the main subtropical gyre has shrunk and the northern gyre expanded in area so that the two gyres are comparable in size and transport. At this level Worthingtons circulation suggests that the main subtropical gyre occupies only about half the area that it did at the sea surface. At the very deepest levels (temperatures < 4 C; Figure 5.1e) the apparent volume transport of the subtropical gyre is large due to the fact that by denition this layer is quite thick (ie, between 1500 m and 5500 m in some places). The Gulf Stream is still present in this deep layer, although the subtropical gyre is considerably smaller in area than at the sea surface. The second gyre just north of the main subtropical gyre has undergone additional expansion in this deep layer, and, furthermore, a new, deep pathway for ow from the Greenland-Iceland Sea to the subtropics has appeared at this level that has a transport of 10 Sverdrups in some places. It is suggested that much of this water must ow to the south below and inshore of the Gulf Stream. This pathway is completely absent from the schema at other, shallower levels, and provides a good example of how different the deep circulation in the ocean can be from the better studied ow at relatively shallow levels. This case study shows the importance of carrying out at least a cursory examination of the global ocean circulation at all levels of the water column.

5.2 Some Near-Surface Water Masses and the Related Circulation At the ocean surface there is generally a surface mixed-layer 10300 m thick, where most physical oceanographic properties are homogenized. This layer is generated through mixing action of the wind, much as a spoon stirs a cup of coffee. In most regions of the world ocean away from the tropics, this layer is deepest in winter, when the winds are generally the strongest and most persistent, and thinnest (or even nonexistent) in summer, when the heating of surface waters by the sun erodes this layer and produces a seasonal thermocline. This cycle of cooling and heating, coupled with the transport of waters by the general circulation of the ocean, leads to a type of near-surface water masses known as Mode Waters. The dening characteristic of these Mode Waters is a relatively thick, vertically mixed region that is caused by a combination of wind-mixing and shallow wintertime convection, followed by subduction under less-dense water masses in summertime. An example of such a water mass in the N. Atlantic, known as 18Degree Water, was rst discussed by L.V. Worthington (1959) and can be seen in Figure 5.2. These temperature proles, collected in the winter of 199798 by PALACE oats in the western N. Atlantic, show the characteristic thermostad, or region of nearly constant temperature, either at the sea surface (Proles 004, 094, and 104), or from 50 m to a few hundred meters below the sea surface (Proles 020, 079, 095, and 098). The proles with a surface mixed layer are indicative of in situ wintertime mixing, while the subsurface thermostad in the others is indicative of the remnants of wintertime mixing at the surface during some earlier winter; in this case, this older winter water was presumably carried to the south by the general circulation of the ocean, and the surface mixed layer became a subsurface thermostad as the water moved into a warmer region and the temperatures of the surface waters increased by atmospheric heating. This notion is consistent with the fact that the proles with the surface mixed layer shown in Figure 5.2 are to the north, and upstream of, those proles with the subsurface thermostad. The mixed layer in this region forms in winter as a result of convection and wind-mixing. But it does not unform in the summer; instead, as the proles in Figure 5.2 indicate, the waters of the winter mixed-layer are subducted under lighter waters as they are carried south by the general circulation. As a result, it appears that there is a net heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere in the process of forming this water mass. Thus, there must be a net ux of heat into the formation region over the region, carried by the ocean circulation, in order to keep the system in a thermodynamic steady state. Recall [see Notes #2, 2.8 and Figure 2.15] that the western portion of the subtropical N. Atlantic is a region with one of the largest ocean-to-atmosphere heat uxes that occurs anywhere in the world ocean, and much of the oceanic manifestation of this large heat loss to the atmosphere is the formation of 18 Water in wintertime. What is the nature of the heat balance and resulting circulation in this water mass? We can take a simple equation of state to be (1) where is the density and is the specic volume. The dynamic height D then becomes

(2)

where the overbar indicates the average value of T over the interval between 0 and zo . Thus the dynamic height anomaly here, , and the mean temperature over the mixed layer are directly related. This implies that cooling of the ocean will tend to decrease the dynamic height. If we think of this cooling taking place in the 18 Water formation region, between 35 -40 N in the western N. Atlantic, while the dynamic height at lower latitudes in the subtropics, say 20 N changes little over the seasonal cycle, then this cooling implies, through the geostrophic relation, a decrease in the north-south pressure gradient in the western N. Atlantic, and thus a weakened circulation as a result of 18 Water formation. However, a second, somewhat different scenario would also seem to be plausible. In the rst scenario outlined above, the combination of cooling via heat loss to the atmosphere, plus wind stirring, might take a summer

temperature prole and turn it into a winter prole simply by mixing the water to a temperature of 18 C down to the original 18 C isotherm. In this case, the mean temperature of the column above the 18 C isotherm would clearly be decreased, leading to a decrease in the dynamic height, as outlined above. But what happens if there is enough energy in the wind to continue the stirring to depths below the 18 C isotherm? It would appear that the mean temperature of the water column above the mixing depth (zmix ) would decrease as long as zmix is near enough to the original 18 C isotherm. For values of zmix much deeper than the depth of the original 18 C isotherm, however, it is possible that the mean temperature of the water column above zmix will actually increase, resulting in an increase in dynamic height above this depth, thus tending to increase the pressure gradient across the gyre and increasing the speed of the circulation. Worthington, in his original discussion of the formation of 18 C Water, suggested this as a possible mechanism, implying that the subtropical gyre should spin-up (ie, increase in volume transport) in winter. Note that in this second scenario there is still a large heat ux from the ocean to the atmosphere in the winter; the ocean is still far warmer and wetter than the atmosphere, so the evaporative and sensible heat uxes are still in the direction of ocean to atmosphere. The extra energy required to mix below zmix is supplied by the mechanical mixing action of the wind. A simple example of how this might occur is shown in Figure 5.3. Here, a summer temperature prole has been chosen to have the functional form (3) We can compute the mean temperature as a function of depth zmix to be

(4)

These functions are plotted in Figure 5.4. Note that the 18 C isotherm was originally at a depth of about 212 m in the T(z) prole. Thus, under the rst scenario outlined above, mixing would proceed just down to 212 m. The average temperature of the water column, however, does not reach 18 C until a depth zmix of about 415 m. As a result, if the wind forms a mixed layer deeper than 415 m, then the dynamic height of the water column above this level will be increased. It is useful to attempt to assess which (if either) of these scenarios is actually occurring in the process of forming 18 C water in the N. Atlantic. Using the N. Atlantic PALACE oat array, maps of mixed layer depth for late winter in 1998 have been constructed and are shown in Figure 5.5. As can be seen, the depth of the mixed layer in late winter, when it usually reaches its deepest value, rarely exceeds about 300 m in the western N. Atlantic. Thus, it would appear that there is a net cooling, and hence a decrease in the north-south pressure gradient in winter (assuming that the simple model for T(z) above is accurate), implying a decrease in the circulation, rather then the increase suggested by Worthington. Efforts are presently underway to use the oat trajectories to assess the degree to which the large-scale circulation of the western N. Atlantic changes with season, in order to better examine the plausibility of Worthingtons ideas. It is worthwhile to examine these ideas, since there are a number of places in the world ocean where mode waters thought to be analogous to 18 C water form in winter, as indicated by the shaded areas shown in Figure 5.6. The characteristic temperatures of the mode waters in these regions are perhaps different than 18 C. It is perhaps surprising that the temperature of the mode water in the western N. Atlantic is so nearly constant in time, even though there are demonstrable winter-to-winter differences in atmosphere and ocean conditions. When Worthington rst discussed and dened the 18 C Water in 1959, he suggested (based on the data available at that time) that the water existed in a narrow band of temperatures, 18.2 0.2 C over a span of about 20 years. Since that time, it has been noticed that the temperature of 18 C has uctuated on decadal time scales, with a general increase in the wintertime mixed layer temperature from 1959 to 1999. Based on the PALACE oat array in the western N. Atlantic, the mixed layer temperature in the mode water formation region in 1999 was about 18.818.9 C, an increase of about 0.8 C since 1959. Whether this apparent warming is lasting, or is only transitory, remains to be seen. 5.3 Mid-Depth Water Masses

The properties of subsurface water masses of the world ocean are generally set at the sea surface. This is the site of water mass modication, or water mass formation for nearly all of the water masses of the world ocean. Below the sea surface, water mass properties generally only change by mixing, as there are no sources of heat or salt (except for geothermal heating or hydrothermal vents at the seaoor). The water masses on deep (subsurface) density surfaces generally acquire their properties where these surfaces intersect the sea surface. Such intersections are known as outcropping, or ventilation regions. The intermediate and deep water masses of the world ocean all originated at the sea surface at such ventilation sites. The mechanism for the formation of such mid-depth water masses involves a transfer of properties from the atmosphere to the ocean (heat, fresh water, gases, etc.) through the oceanic mixed layer and then a movement into the subsurface ocean along outcropped density surfaces, as shown in Figure 5.7 (top panel). Here the mixed layer plays the role of a window between the atmosphere and the deep-sea. As shown in the previous section, this mixed layer can easily be several hundred meters deep in the winter. In the summer, it is generally expected that the mixed layer is shallower at mid-latitudes and high latitudes. This notion was rst discussed by Iselin (1939), who noted that vertical proles of temperature or salinity through the ocean at low latitudes was similar to horizontal proles of surface properties of temperature and salinity at the sea surface from north to south. This conceptual model, shown in Figure 5.8, clearly demonstrates the plausibility of the idea that the properties of the interior ocean are set at the sea surface at higher latitudes. For the N. Atlantic, values of < 27.45 (Figure 5.7, bottom panel) generally outcrop in the winter, with even higher values outcropping in the Labrador and Norwegian Seas. This implies that the waters down to depths as deep as 1500 m are routinely ventilated in winter in the N. Atlantic, with even deeper waters ventilated in marginal seas. For the N. Pacic, by contrast, values of only as great as 26.50 are exposed to the surface in wintertime, as shown in Figure 5.8. As can be seen in Figure 5.9, these surfaces extend only as deep as about 600 m in the central N. Pacic. Thus, the deeper waters of the N. Pacic are only weakly ventilated compared to the N. Atlantic. Warren (1983) has suggested that these differences are caused by the relatively weaker evaporation at the sea surface over the N. Pacic compared to the N. Atlantic, which in turn is apparently caused by the different atmospheric circulations induced by the different congurations of the continents near the the two basins. The water masses of the world ocean can be classied by their temperature-salinity relations. T/S curves from the world ocean on an ocean-by-ocean basis (Figure 5.10) show a number of subsurface inection points, including both maxima and minima. These inection points usually denote sources of water masses, as can be seen by a general discussion of the properties of T/S curves. Consider the mixture of 2 water masses (assuming equal quantities of each): (5) Here the subscripts 1 and 2 denote the values for the 2 water masses, and the subcript 3 denotes the resulting mixture. The quantity C is the heat capacity of seawater, and M denotes the mass of salt in the various components. For intermediate water masses, we can take = 1.026 with an error of less than 1%. The heat capacity is a function of T, S, and p, but only weakly so (< 1% change over the temperature range 0100 C). Thus, in the heat equation we can scale the factor C out of the balance with only a small error. For salt, since the salinity is low (ie, the salt component is less than 4% of the water component by mass), we can effectively replace the salt by the salinity, so that the dening equations become (6) If the proportions of the two components are unequal, we can assign the proportions to be a and b such that

(7)

Here we have 3 equations, so we can in principle solve for 3 unknowns. Thus, if all of the temperature and salinity values are known, the relative proportions a and b can be found (in this case only 2 unknowns exist,

and we could add another unknown, such as the proportion of a third water mass, if we wanted). From these equations it is not difcult to show that any mixture of 2 water masses lies on the straight line connecting the points (T1 , S1 ) and (T2 , S2 ). The relative proportions of the two water masses can then be found by considering the position along the line. In the case of 3 water masses, it is not difcult to show that all mixtures of the three lie inside the triangle formed with the three (T, S) sources as vertices. An examination of the T/S curves for the world ocean (Figure 5.11) suggests that these simple quantitative notions can be used to suggest the origins of the major intermediate water masses. (a) Antarctic Intermediate Water The T/S curves for all southern hemisphere oceans (S. Atlantic, S. Pacic, and Indian) shown a subsurface minimum in salinity in the vicinity of 27. This relatively fresh water at mid-depths can be traced backwards along isopycnals to the vicinity of the Antarctic continent, where the surface outcrops, as can be seen in the north-south sections through the Atlantic and Pacic Oceans shown in Figures 5.12 and 5.13 (top). The source of this cold, fresh water appears to be the melting of sea ice in springtime. As can be seen from Figures 5.14 and 5.15, the ice sheet surrounding the Antarctic continent retreats over a distance of nearly 10 of latitude between winter and summer. Since the salinity of sea ice is generally below 10 psu, this melting of winter ice releases a great deal of fresh water into the ocean during each austral spring and summer. This fresh water will exist as a relatively thin layer on the surface of the Antarctic ocean, which has a general circulation depicted in Figure 5.16. As this surface fresh water circulates around the continent, it will generally spread to the north and will eventually encounter less dense surface water at lower latitudes. When this happens, the surface water generated from melting ice will be subducted below the lighter fresher water and will mix as it sinks in the Southern Ocean, as shown in Figure 5.17. This relatively fresh water forms a local subsurface salinity minimum, which then continues to mix as it spreads further to the north. The water at this salinity minimum is known as Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW). The details of the circulation of AAIW are poorly known and have been summarized in the treatise by Tomczak and Godfrey (1994). For the S. Pacic, the hypothesized circulation of AAIW is shown in Figure 5.18. As can be seen, the water mass enters the S. Pacic in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current west of New Zealand and generally spreads in a northward direction. The value of the salinity at the salinity minimum increases as the water mixes along this path. In the bottom panel of Figure 5.13, the ocean-to-ocean differences of AAIW in the southern hemisphere can be seen. (b) Mediterranean Water In summer, the winds over the Mediterranean Sea blow off the Sahara Desert, promoting massive heating and evaporation at the ocean surface. Thus, at the end of summer, the surface water of the Mediterranean is warm and very saline, with values of S in excess of 39 psu. In winter, the winds over the Mediterranean blow from the Alps in central Europe, effectively cooling the surface waters of the Mediterranean. This ocean-to-atmosphere heat ux results in convective instability at the surface of the Mediterranean, promoting massive sinking of surface water. As a result, the deep waters of the Mediterranean are relatively high in salinity and dissolved oxygen compared to most of the deeper waters of the world ocean. This sinking in the eastern Mediterranean requires a mass ux from the western Mediterranean, which draws surface water from the N. Atlantic into the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. Again in order to conserve mass, an outow of deeper water from the Mediterranean into the N. Atlantic is required. This scenario is depicted in Figures 5.19 and 5.20. The Mediterranean Water (MW) entering the N. Atlantic is more saline, and hence more dense, than any other water at similar depths, and hence sinks to depths as great as 1800 m. This MW appears on the T/S curve of the N. Atlantic as a subsurface maximum in range of from 27.2 to 27.8, as shown in Figure 5.21. At a depth of 1000 m (Figure 5.22) the tongue of MW can be seen spreading all across the subtropical N. Atlantic. That the MW is found across such a wide range of density surfaces in the N. Atlantic implies that both isopycnal (along- ) and diapycnal (across- ) mixing processes are operative. This relatively saline layer eventually spreads through much of the mid-depth world ocean, and over time even mixes into the deep circulation. As a result, the deeper waters of the world ocean are somewhat denser than they would be without the Mediterranean. This might have important implications to the onset of deep convection in the world oceanwithout the MW, the deep ocean would be less dense, and deep convection would in principle be easier to initiate (ie, the present-day poleward boundary of deep convection would be moved equatorward).

(c) Red Sea Water The surface waters of the Red Sea are much saltier than most of the world ocean, for reasons analogous to the Mediterranean. Due to winds off the deserts in the region, the surface waters of the Red Sea are warm and very saline due to very large values of E P. Similar to the Mediterranean, there is an inow of surface waters to the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Bab al Mandab, with a corresponding outow of Red Sea water into the Indian Ocean below the inow (see Figure 5.23 and 5.24). Remnants of this plume of Red Sea water can be seen over much of the subsurface Indian Ocean, as can be seen in Figure 5.11. Perhaps as interesting is the subsurface water mass in the Red Sea, as can be seen in Figure 5.25. Here, it is seen that below about 2000 m in the Red Sea the temperature rises to values as high as 58 C, with the salinity in excess of 300 PSU!. Since the concentration of dissolved oxygen at depth in the Red Sea is lower than surface values, it appears that this deep water did not originate at the sea surface. Instead, this suggests the likelihood of strong hydrothermal inputs through the seaoor of the Red Sea. Since this water lies at depths far deeper than the sill at the Strait of Bab al Mandab, this water is constrained to remain in the Red Sea and cannot generally escape into the Indian Ocean. Note that salinities of 300 PSU cannot be called salinities in the ordinary meaning of salinity, which is based on the principle of constant proportions; such high salinities cannot even be measured accurately by conventional methods. (d) North Pacic Intermediate Water An examination of the T/S relation for the N. Pacic (see Figure 5.10) indicates that the N. Pacic has a subsurface = 26.8. Since very little AAIW circulates into the N. Pacic, this feature of salinity minimum in the vicinity of the circulation must somehow originate in the region of the N. Pacic. However, an examination of 5.26 suggests that densities as high as = 26.8 never outcrop at the sea surface in the N. Pacic. Thus, the origins of this intermediate water mass, known as North Pacic Intermediate Water (NPIW) is not immediately clear. As shown in Figure 5.27, there is generally no subsurface salinity minimum in the subpolar gyre of the N. Pacic; instead, in the subpolar gyre the salinity minimum is at the sea surface. Between about 20 N and 40 N, however, the minimum exists at depths of between 300 and 700 m. But the fact remains that is difcult to see a priori how this minimum originates, since it is impossible to form a subsurface minimum in salinity by mixing alone from waters of higher salinity. A key piece of information in this study is the distribution of chlorouorocarbons (CFC-11) on various density surfaces of the N. Pacic, as shown in Figure 5.28. It is known that CFCs invade the ocean via direct atmospheric contact; thus, high concentration of CFC imply relatively recent contact with the atmosphere. As shown in Figure 5.28, there is measurable CFC in the N. Pacic down to surfaces at least as great as = 27.2, even though these densities do not outcrop in the N. Pacic. As we shall see later, the vertical mixing in the ocean is probably not strong enough to allow mixing down to this depth (in the absence of ventilation) over the time since CFC input to the ocean became signicant, about 40 years. Thus, we are left with the strong possibility that the CFC concentrations shown in Figure 5.28 result from a surface source of CFC somewhere in the vicinity of the N. Pacic. As can be seen on both density surfaces shown in Figure 5.28, the concentration of CFC increases to the northwest towards the Okhotsk Sea. For this reason, several studies of the water masses of the Okhotsk Sea have taken place in the past decade in order to examine the possibility that it is the source region for NPIW. The Sea of Okhotsk is partially ice-covered in winter as a result of large fresh water input from the Amur River and strong air-sea interaction with Siberian air masses. In 1995, a large amount of CTD data and chemical samples were collected in early spring in the Okhotsk Sea, just as the ice was melting. At least one of the stations (see Figure 5.29) showed the presence of cold, recently ventilated water with density near = 26.8 on the northern shelf in the Okhotsk Sea, with high values of CFC at the bottom, indicating recent ventilation. Thus, it appears that the Okhotsk is a likely source of some of the water that eventually forms NPIW. The waters of the Okhotsk Sea are generally of low salinity (due to fresh water input from rivers and melting ice), which is at least one of the sources of the water near the salinity minimum in the N. Pacic. 5.4 Deep Water Masses An examination of the T/S curves shown in Figure 5.10 shows that the deep waters of the world ocean appear to have similar values of temperature and salinity, suggesting a common origin for these waters. Stommel (1958) tried to deduce the origin of the deep waters of the world ocean by examining regional variations in the temperature and dissolved oxygen of the deep water; it is supposed that the water nearest the sources of deep water should have the lowest temperature and highest dissolved oxygen. As shown in Figure 5.30 (from Stommel), the sites of likely

deep water formation are at high northern latitudes and somewhere in the vicinity of the S. Atlantic. At the other end of the scale, the waters farthest from the sources appear to be in the eastern S. Pacic and in the N. Pacic. With these ideas from mind, we examine the properties of the waters formed in these to sites. (a) Antarctic Bottom Water There are several permanent ice shelves near the Antarctic continent, as shown in Figure 5.31. The region near the Antarctic Penninsula and the Weddell Sea, where several of these ice shelves exist, is also the site of extremely cold bottom water, perhaps the coldest water found anywhere at depths below 1000 m in the vicinity of the Antarctic continent (see Figure 5.32). This water mass is thought to be formed under ice shelves on the Antarctic Penninsula via the process of brine rejection (ie, when ice is formed, the salinity in the water immediately under the ice is increased as fresh water is withdrawn from the system to produce the ice). A hydrographic survey carried out near the Larsen and Ronne Ice shelves during austral summer in 1968 (see Figures 5.33a and b) has shown a plume of cold water owing down the continental slope and into the Weddell Sea; this water is presumably prototype Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Once this prototype AABW enters the Weddell Sea, it appears to mix with the ambient seawater in the region and then to ow out of the Sea and into the other basins of the Southern Hemisphere, as shown in Figure 5.34. It is estimated that only 12 Sv of dense water is actually formed under the ice shelf, with this amount increased to 1520 Sv via mixing in the Weddell Sea. Much of this total is recirculated around the Antarctic Continent, with the rest owing into the basins to the north. This can be seen in the map of bottom potential temperature for the Southern Hemisphere shown in Figure 5.35. (b) North Atlantic Deep Water The waters of the Norwegian Sea are among the densest that occur anywhere in the world ocean. These dense waters are formed by active deep convection in wintertime. This convection results from cooling of high salinity surface water that originated in the Gulf Stream at much lower latitudes. Originally warm and saline, this water is cooled by air-sea interaction at high latitudes in the Norwegian Sea and becomes cold, saline water of high density that sinks to the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. Due to the bathymetry of the Norwegian Sea and the sills that connect the Sea with the N. Atlantic to the south, most of this dense water formed by deep convection cannot leave the Norwegian Sea. It is trapped there by the bathymetry. However, a relatively small amound enters the N. Atlantic through three passages, the Denmark Strait, the Iceland-Faroe Ridge, and the Faroe Bank Channel, as shown in Figure 5.36. The largest of these ows is about 3 Sv (the Denmark Strait; Figure 5.37), with the total through the three passages equalling about 7 Sv. This water is prototype North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). This prototype water mixes with other deep waters of the northern N. Atlantic and eventually grows to nearly 20 Sv of NADW. This water then ows south down the western boundary of the N. Atlantic (after being joined by a less-dense contribution from the Labrador Sea) and enters the other deep basins of the world ocean. Stommel was able to deduce the general pattern of deep circulation for the world ocean from his T/O2 diagram (see Figure 5.30), and this can be summarized in Figure 5.38. Clearly AABW and NADW are the sources of the deep waters of the Indian and N. and S. Pacic Oceans, and during the WOCE program there were many high-quality CTD and chemistry samples collected in the world ocean in order to rene this idea.