The Stratospheric Circulation 



665 



45° 40' 



Fig. 312. Spreading of water masses of the East and West Greenland Currents derived from 



35 oceanographic cross-sections. , limit between the east and west respectively 



of Greenland Current and the Atlantic water. , limit of the core layer of the 



Baffin water — 1-8'C: minimum temperature in the core layer of the polar water. 



with the continous transport of cold inland air which spreads well out over the sea, 

 produces a belt around Greenland in which the temperature is lowered so much that 

 also there a polar climate prevails. Within this belt the East Greenland Current 

 maintains itself as a polar current as far south as 60° N. 



An excellent monograph on the water masses of the oceanic region between Green- 

 land and North America with numerous temperature and salinity sections and velocity 

 profiles calculated on the basis of these sections is that by Smith, Soule and Mosby 

 (1937). For a general understanding of conditions here any of the cross-sections can 

 be selected from each current section since the main features are very similar in all of 

 them. Figure 313 shows these conditions in a cross-section through the Davis Strait. 

 The different water types moving through the strait are clearly shown, in particular 

 by the temperature distribution. Water with a temperature of less than — 1 °C keeps 

 well towards the Baffin Land side and forms the core of the Baffin Land Current; 

 its centre is found at about 100 m depth and here as shown by the velocity profile the 

 current direction points towards south. On the western side of the strait there is a 

 warm weakly saline top layer flowing northwards with a small velocity that represents 

 the last branching remnants of the West Greenland Current. There is a core of warm 

 and highly saline water at about 400 m depth; this is Atlantic water that moves 

 northwards within the lower layers of the West Greenland Current along the conti- 

 nental slope. Along the 600 nautical miles that this water travels in about 3 months 

 from Cape Farewell its temperature falls by 4°C and the salinity by 0-50°oo due to 

 mixing. The Labrador Current, after reinforcement by the inflow through Hudson 

 Strait, also keeps close to the continental coast and as in the case of the East Greenland 



