Abstract. Following the launch of ESA's Soil Moisture andOcean Salinity (SMOS) mission, it has been shown that brightness temperatures at a low microwave frequency of 1.4 GHz (L-band) are sensitive to sea ice properties. In the first demonstration study, sea ice thickness up to 50 cm has been derived using a semi-empirical algorithm with constant tie-points. Here, we introduce a novel iterative retrieval algorithm that is based on a thermodynamic sea ice model and a three-layer radiative transfer model, which explicitly takes variations of ice temperature and ice salinity into account. In addition, ice thickness variations within the SMOS spatial resolution are considered through a statistical thickness distribution function derived from high-resolution ice thickness measurements from NASA's Operation IceBridge campaign. This new algorithm has been used for the continuous operational production of a SMOS-based sea ice thickness data set from 2010 on. The data set is compared to and validated with estimates from assimilation systems, remote sensing data, and airborne electromagnetic sounding data. The comparisons show that the new retrieval algorithm has a considerably better agreement with the validation data and delivers a more realistic Arctic-wide ice thickness distribution than the algorithm used in the previous study (Kaleschke et al., 2012).

The warming Nordic seas potentially tend to decrease the overflow across the Greenland–Iceland–Scotland Ridge (GISR) system. Recent observations by Macrander et al. document a significant drop in the intensity of outflowing Denmark Strait Overflow Water of more than 20% over 3 yr and a simultaneous increase in the temperature of the bottom layers of more than 0.4°C. A simulation of the exchange across the GISR with a regional ocean circulation model is used here to identify possible mechanisms that control changes in the Denmark Strait overflow and its relations to changed forcing condition. On seasonal and longer time scales, the authors establish links of the overflow anomalies to a decreasing capacity of the dense water reservoir caused by a change of circulation pattern north of the sill. On annual and shorter time scales, the wind stress curl around Iceland determines the barotropic circulation around the island and thus the barotropic flow through Denmark Strait. For the overlapping time scales, the barotropic and overflow component interactively determine transport variations. Last, a relation between sea surface height and reservoir height changes upstream of the sill is used to predict the overflow variability from altimeter data. Estimated changes are in agreement with other recent transport estimates based on current-meter arrays.

The present contribution represents the first attempt to comprehensively describe regional along-slope processes and their sedimentary impacts around the Iberian margin, combining numerically simulated bottom currents with existing knowledge of contourite depositional and erosive features. The obtained correlation links the circulation of water masses with the main contourite depositional systems (CDS) and estimates other potential areas where new CDS could be found. Their study should be of great interest not only because of the stratigraphic, sedimentological, palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatological significance, but also because of their relation with possible specific deep marine geohabitats and/or mineral and energy resources.

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