FORMATION AND EXPORT OF WATER MASSES PRODUCED IN ARCTIC SHELF POLYNYAS - PROCESS STUDIES OF OCEANIC CONVECTION

The contribution of brine-enriched bottom water from Arctic shelves to intermediate and deep water masses of the adjacent Arctic Ocean or th e Nordic Seas is a widely discussed topic in Arctic Oceanography. This paper presents an overview of process-oriented modelling which was co nducted to deepen our understanding of oceanic convection and its role in water mass formation. It arrives at a conceptual picture of the co nvective formation of bottom water masses in Arctic shelf seas as a co nsequence of ice-ocean interactions and considers the role of sediment s in slope convection. To investigate and discuss the processes-which take part in transformation, production and export of dense shelf wate r masses a hierarchy of numerical models of different type and spatial resolution was applied. The models cover spatial scales from well bel ow the internal Rossby radius of deformation up to the mesoscale. (C) 1997 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.