Because our study is focused on changes in the intermediate and deep Greenland Sea, we use 2000 dbar as the reference level for the density time series (Fig. 2c). The 37.45 isopycnal deepened steadily from 550m depth in 1981 to 2000m depth in 1994. A density difference of 0.1 (37.33 to 37.43) occured within a depth interval of only 100 m (between 100m and 200m) in 1981. In 1994 this difference is spread over a water column of 850m (between 400m and 1250m depth) indicating a density decrease in this part of the water column. Below 2000m, the density remained almost unchanged between 1981 and 1994.
 |
Fig. 2: Time series of (c) density in the central Greenland Sea. The time series are presented as sections with time as the horizontal and depth as the vertical axes. The color bars are chosen to reflect changes in the deep water. Each year marker indicates the first of January of the particular year. |
|---|