Coherent Eddies in the Labrador Sea Observed from a Mooring

Abstract

During June?November 1994, a mooring in the central Labrador Sea near the former Ocean Weather Station Bravo recorded a half-dozen anomalous events that prove to be two different types of coherent eddies. Comparisons with simple analytical models are used to classify these events as coherent eddies on the basis of their velocity signatures. The first clear examples of long-lived convectively generated eddies are reported. These four small (radius ?5?15 km) eddies are exclusively anticyclonic, with cold, fresh middepth potential temperature (?) and salinity (S) cores surrounded by azimuthal currents of ?15 cm s?1. Their ?/S properties identify them unambiguously as the products of wintertime deep convection in the interior Labrador Sea. Compared with eddies in other regions, these anticyclones are unusual for their strong surface expressions and composite ?/S cores. Two warm cyclones are also seen; these are larger (radius ?15 km) than the anticyclones and about as energetic (currents ?15 cm s?1). Their ?/S and potential vorticity properties suggest that they are created by stretching a column of water from the Irminger Current, which surrounds the Labrador Sea on three sides.