@article {nelson_delayed_2024,
	title = {Delayed Recovery of the Irminger Interior From Cooling in 2015 Due To Widespread Buoyancy Loss and Suppressed Restratification},
	journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
	volume = {51},
	number = {2},
	year = {2024},
	note = {_eprint: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2023GL106501},
	pages = {e2023GL106501},
	abstract = {Watermass transformation in the Irminger Sea, a key region for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, is influenced by atmospheric and oceanic variability. Strong wintertime atmospheric forcing in 2015 resulted in enhanced convection and the densification of the Irminger Sea. Deep convection persisted until 2018, even though winters following 2015 were mild. We show that this behavior can be attributed to an initially slow convergence of buoyancy, followed by more rapid convergence of buoyancy. This two-stage recovery, in turn, is consistent with restratification driven by baroclinic instability of the Irminger Current (IC), that flows around the basin. The initial, slow restratification resulted from the weak horizontal density gradients created by the widespread 2015 atmospheric heat loss. Faster restratification occurred once the IC recovered. This mechanism explains the delayed recovery of the Irminger Sea following a single extreme winter and has implications for the ventilation and overturning that occurs in the basin.},
	keywords = {baroclinic instability, Buoyancy, restratification},
	issn = {1944-8007},
	doi = {10.1029/2023GL106501},
	url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2023GL106501},
	author = {Nelson, Monica and Straneo, Fiamma and Purkey, Sarah G. and de Jong, Marieke Femke}
}
@article {RN50,
	title = {Strong winter cooling over the Irminger Sea in winter 2014-2015, exceptional deep convection, and the emergence of anomalously low SST},
	journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
	volume = {43},
	number = {13},
	year = {2016},
	pages = {7106-7113},
	type = {Journal Article},
	abstract = {Deep convection is presumed to be vital for the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, even though observational evidence for the link remains inconclusive. Modeling studies have suggested that convection will weaken as a result of enhanced freshwater input. The emergence of anomalously low sea surface temperature in the subpolar North Atlantic has led to speculation that this process is already at work. Here we show that strong atmospheric forcing in the winter of 2014{\textendash}2015, associated with a high North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, produced record mixed layer depths in the Irminger Sea. Local mixing removed the stratification of the upper 1400 m and ventilated the basin to middepths resembling a state similar to the mid-1990s when a positive NAO also prevailed. We show that the strong local atmospheric forcing is predominantly responsible for the negative sea surface temperature anomalies observed in the subpolar North Atlantic in 2015 and that there is no evidence of permanently weakened deep convection.},
	issn = {00948276},
	doi = {10.1002/2016gl069596},
	author = {de Jong, Marieke Femke and de Steur, Laura}
}
