Lagrangian tracing of the water–mass transformations in the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

The thermohaline stream function has previously been used to describe the ocean circulation in temperature and salinity space. In the present study, the Lagrangian thermohaline stream function is introduced and computed for northward flowing water masses in the Atlantic Ocean, using Lagrangian trajectories. The stream function shows the water–mass transformations in the Atlantic Ocean, where warm and saline water is converted to cold and fresh as it flows from to . By analysing the Lagrangian divergence of heat and salt flux, the conversion of temperature is found to take place in the Gulf Stream, the upper flank of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre and in the North Atlantic Drift, whereas the conversion of salinity rather occurs over a narrower band in the same regions. Thus, conversions of temperature and salinity as shown by the Lagrangian thermohaline stream function are confined to the same regions in the domain. The study of a specific, representative trajectory shows that, in the absence of air–sea interactions, a mixing process leads to the conversion of temperature and salinity from warm and saline to cold and fresh, and that this process is confined to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. However, to define and to understand this process, further investigation is needed.