The newly confirmed ocean current is called the North Icelandic Jet. It feeds cold, dense water into the Deep Western Boundary Current, helping to drive the lower limb of the Ocean Conveyor, the global ocean circulation system that regulates Earth's climate. Warm water from the tropics eventually diverges south of Iceland, with one branch, the North Icelandic Irminger Current flowing west of the island. The current sheds eddies that dissipate into the Iceland Sea Gyre. The waters lose heat to the cold atmosphere in winter, become colder and denser, and sink. Cold, dense water leaks out of the gyre, coalescing into the North Icelandic Jet, which pools behind the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The cold, dense water flows over the ridge and feeds the Deep Western Boundary Current. (Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)[back]
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