Le Bras, I., F. Straneo, M. Muilwijk, L. H. Smedsrud, F. Li, M. S. Lozier, and N. P. Holliday, 2021: How much Arctic fresh water participates in the subpolar overturning circulation? Journal of Physical Oceanography, 955–973, https://doi.org/10.1175/jpo-d-20-0240.1.

Fresh Arctic waters flowing into the Atlantic are thought to have two primary fates. They may be mixed into the deep ocean as part of the overturning circulation (light blue Deep Water arrows in the schematic), or flow alongside regions of deep water formation without impacting overturning (purple/green Polar Water arrows). In this study we constrain fresh water pathways by building volume, heat, and salt budgets of the entire circulation east of Greenland using observations. Our results suggest that the overturning circulation is more sensitive to changes in Arctic fresh water and precipitation than Greenland melt.  Figure provided by Natalie Renier, WHOI.