Physical oceanographic and acoustical results from the 1988–89 Greenland Sea tomography experiment

Abstract

Analyses of the acoustical tomography data taken in the Greenland Sea in 1988–1989, when combined with inputs from other environmental measurements made in the region, have yielded a number of insights into both the physical oceanographic and acoustical properties of that polar sea. The formation of Greenland Sea deep water (GSDW), which is of importance to the global heat engine and climate studies, was imaged tomographically, allowing us to make significant new statements about the mechanisms, rates, and amounts of GSDW formation. Studies of the late arriving acoustic energy have allowed both detailed studies of the evolution of the surface mixed layer as well as a novel acoustical study of the temporal dispersion of acoustic normal modes by that layer in the marginal ice zone. Rough surface scattering processes in ice and open water conditions, as well as ambient noise, have also been studied using the tomography data set.