To provide an observational basis for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections of a slowing Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the 21st century, the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) observing system was launched in the summer of 2014. The first 21-month record reveals a highly variable overturning circulation responsible for the majority of the heat and freshwater transport across the OSNAP line. In a departure from the prevailing view that changes in deep water formation in the Labrador Sea dominate MOC variability, these results suggest that the conversion of warm, salty, shallow Atlantic waters into colder, fresher, deep waters that move southward in the Irminger and Iceland basins is largely responsible for overturning and its variability in the subpolar basin.

Repeated shipboard observation sections across the boundary flow off northeastern Brazil as well as acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and current-meter records from a moored boundary array deployed during 2000-04 near 11°S are analyzed here for both the northward warm water flow by the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) above approximately 1100 m and the southward flow of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) underneath. At 5°S, the mean from nine sections yields an NBUC transport of 26.5 Ϯ 3.7 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1) along the boundary; at 11°S the mean NBUC transport from five sections is 25.4 Ϯ 7.4 Sv, confirming that the NBUC is already well developed at 11°S. At both latitudes a persistent offshore southward recirculation between 200-and 1100-m depth reduces the net northward warm water flow through the 5°S section (west of 31.5°W) to 22.1 Ϯ 5.3 Sv and through the 11°S section to 21.7 Ϯ 4.1 Sv (west of 32.0°W). The 4-yr-long NBUC transport time series from 11°S yields a seasonal cycle of 2.5 Sv amplitude with its northward maximum in July. Interannual NBUC transport variations are small, varying only by Ϯ1.2 Sv during the four years, with no detectable trend. The southward flow of NADW within the deep western boundary current at 5°S is 25.5 Ϯ 8.3 Sv with an offshore northward recirculation, yielding a nine-section mean of 20.3 Ϯ 10.1 Sv west of 31.5°W. For Antarctic Bottom Water, a net northward flow of 4.4 Ϯ 3.0 Sv is determined at 5°S. For the 11°S section, the moored array data show a pronounced energy maximum at 60-70-day period in the NADW depth range, which was identified in related work as deep eddies translating southward along the boundary. Based on a kinematic eddy model fit to the first half of the moored time series, the mean NADW transfer by the deep eddies at 11°S was estimated to be about 17 Sv. Given the large interannual variability of the deep near-boundary transport time series, which ranged from 14 to 24 Sv, the 11°S mean was considered to be not distinguishable from the mean at 5°S.

The mean warm water transfer toward the equator along the western boundary of the South Atlantic is investigated, based on a number of ship surveys carried out during 1990-96 with CTD water mass observations and current profiling by shipboard and lowered (with the CTD/rosette) acoustic Doppler current profiler and with Pegasus current profiler. The bulk of the northward warm water flow follows the coast in the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) from latitudes south of 10S, carrying 23 Sv (Sv 10 6 m 3 s 1) above 1000 m. Out of this, 16 Sv are waters warmer than 7C that form the source waters of the Florida Current. Zonal inflow from the east by the South Equatorial Current enters the western boundary system dominantly north of 5S, adding transport northwest of Cape San Roque, and transforming the NBUC along its way toward the equator into a surface-intensified current, the North Brazil Current (NBC). From the combination of moored arrays and shipboard sections just north of the equator along 44W, the mean NBC transport was determined at 35 Sv with a small seasonal cycle amplitude of only about 3 Sv. The reason for the much larger near-equatorial northward warm water boundary current than what would be required to carry the northward heat transport are recirculations by the zonal current system and the existence of the shallow South Atlantic tropical-subtropical cell (STC). The STC connects the subduction zones of the eastern subtropics of both hemispheres via equatorward boundary undercurrents with the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC), and the return flow is through upwelling and poleward Ekman transport. The persistent existence of a set of eastward thermocline and intermediate countercurrents on both sides of the equator was confirmed that recurred throughout the observations and carry ventilated waters from the boundary regime into the tropical interior. A strong westward current underneath the EUC, the Equatorial Intermediate Current, returns low-oxygen water westward. Consistent evidence for the existence of a seasonal variation in the warm water flow south of the equator could not be established, whereas significant seasonal variability of the boundary regime occurs north of the equator: northwestward alongshore throughflow of about 10 Sv of waters with properties from the Southern Hemisphere was found along the Guiana boundary in boreal spring when the North Equatorial Countercurrent is absent or even flowing westward, whereas during June-January the upper NBC is known to connect with the eastward North Equatorial Countercurrent through a retroflection zone that seasonally migrates up and down the coast and spawns eddies. The equatorial zone thus acts as a buffer and transformation zone for cross-equatorial exchanges, but knowledge of the detailed pathways in the interior including the involved diapycnal exchanges is still a problem.

In 1997, a unique hydrographic and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC: component CFC-11) dataset was obtained in the subpolar North Atlantic. To estimate the synopticity of the 1997 data, the recent temporal evolution of the CFC and Labrador Sea Water (LSW) thickness fields are examined. In the western Atlantic north of 50ЊN, the LSW thickness decreased considerably from 1994-97, while the mean CFC concentrations did not change much. South of 50ЊN and in the eastern Atlantic, the CFC concentration increased with little or no change in the LSW thickness. On shorter timescales, local anomalies due to the presence of eddies are observed, but for space scales larger than the eddies the dataset can be treated as being synoptic over the 1997 observation period.The spreading of LSW in the subpolar North Atlantic is described in detail using gridded CFC and LSW thickness fields combined with Profiling Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (PALACE) float trajectories. The gridded fields are also used to calculate the CFC-11 inventory in the LSW from 40Њ to 65ЊN, and from 10Њ to 60ЊW. In total, 2300 Ϯ 250 tons of CFC-11 (equivalent to 16.6 million moles) were brought into the LSW by deep convection. In 1997, 28% of the inventory was still found in the Labrador Sea west of 45ЊW and 31% of the inventory was located in the eastern Atlantic.The CFC inventory in the LSW was used to estimate the lower limits of LSW formation rates. At a constant formation rate, a value of 4.4-5.6 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1 ) is obtained. If the denser modes of LSW are ventilated only in periods with intense convection, the minimum formation rate of LSW in 1988-94 is 8.1-10.8 Sv, and 1. 8-2.4 Sv in 1995-97.

Abstract.The

The western boundary current system off Brazil is a key region for diagnosing variations of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and the southern subtropical cell. In July 2013 a mooring array was installed off the coast at 11°S similar to an array installed between 2000 and 2004 at the same location. Here we present results from two research cruises and the first 10.5 months of moored observations in comparison to the observations a decade ago. Average transports of the North Brazil Undercurrent and the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) have not changed between the observational periods. DWBC eddies that are predicted to disappear with a weakening AMOC are still present. Upper layer changes in salinity and oxygen within the last decade are consistent with an increased Agulhas leakage, while at depths water mass changes are likely related to changes in the North Atlantic as well as tropical circulation changes. HUMMELS ET AL. BOUNDARY CIRCULATION CHANGES AT 11°S 7615

The current system east of the Grand Banks was intensely observed by World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) array ACM-6 during 1993-95 with eight moorings, reaching about 500 km out from the shelf edge and covering the water column from about 400-m depth to the bottom. More recently, a reduced array by the Institut für Meerskunde (IfM) at Kiel, Germany, of four moorings was deployed during 1999-2001, focusing on the deep-water flow near the western continental slope. Both sets of moored time series, each about 22 months long, are combined here for a mean current boundary section, and both arrays are analyzed for the variability of currents and transports. A mean hydrographic section is derived from seven ship surveys and is used for geostrophic upper-layer extrapolation and isopycnal subdivision of the mean transports into deep-water classes. The offshore part of the combined section is dominated by the deep-reaching North Atlantic Current (NAC) with currents still at 10 cm s Ϫ1 near the bottom and a total northward transport of about 140 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1 ), with the details depending on the method of surface extrapolation used. The mean flow along the western boundary was southward with the section-mean North Atlantic Deep Water outflow determined to be 12 Sv below the ϭ 27.74 kg m Ϫ3 isopycnal. However, east of the deep western boundary current (DWBC), the deep NAC carries a transport of 51 Sv northward below ϭ 27.74 kg m Ϫ3 , resulting in a large net northward flow in the western part of the basin. From watermass signatures it is concluded that the deep NAC is not a direct recirculation of DWBC water masses. Transport time series for the DWBC variability are derived for both arrays. The variance is concentrated in the period range from ϳ2 weeks to 2 months, but there are also variations at interannual and longer periods, with much of the DWBC variability being related to fluctuations and meandering of the NAC. A significant annual cycle is not recognizable in the combined current and transport time series of both arrays. The moored array results are compared with other evidence on deep outflow and recirculation, including recent models of different types and complexity.

The existence in the ocean of deep western boundary currents, which connect the high-latitude regions where deep water is formed with upwelling regions as part of the global ocean circulation, was postulated more than 40 years ago. These ocean currents have been found adjacent to the continental slopes of all ocean basins, and have core depths between 1,500 and 4,000 m. In the Atlantic Ocean, the deep western boundary current is estimated to carry (10-40) x 10(6) m3 s(-1) of water, transporting North Atlantic Deep Water--from the overflow regions between Greenland and Scotland and from the Labrador Sea--into the South Atlantic and the Antarctic circumpolar current. Here we present direct velocity and water mass observations obtained in the period 2000 to 2003, as well as results from a numerical ocean circulation model, showing that the Atlantic deep western boundary current breaks up at 8 degrees S. Southward of this latitude, the transport of North Atlantic Deep Water into the South Atlantic Ocean is accomplished by migrating eddies, rather than by a continuous flow. Our model simulation indicates that the deep western boundary current breaks up into eddies at the present intensity of meridional overturning circulation. For weaker overturning, continuation as a stable, laminar boundary flow seems possible.