International expedition tracks East Greenland Coastal Current

By:
Alan Flurry

Nick Foukal, assistant professor in the UGA Department of Marine Sciences is co-leader of an international research project focused on oceanography and current measurements in the East Greenland Coastal Current. The team’s observations aboard the Research Vessel Thorunn Thordardottir from August 29 through September 12 aim to help determine how the East Greenland Coastal Current may influence the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

Foukal was joined by 15 physical and chemical oceanographers from the United States, Norway and Iceland, as well as a journalist and a photographer from The New York Times:

The project aims to measure the currents and salinity of the East Greenland Coastal Current for a year with moored instrumentation at 71°N. The East Greenland coastal current carries fresh water from the Arctic and Greenland Ice Sheet southward toward the North Atlantic where it may increase stratification and slow or stop the large-scale Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The strength and variability of this current have never been measured continuously over the course of an entire year, and the measurements of this project aim to assess its possible impact on AMOC stability.

The moorings and data will be recovered in 2026 on a Norwegian research cruise to the region.

Via the UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO)

Image: Photo from the expedition by Nick Foukal.