North Icelandic Jet

The North Icelandic Jet is a deep-reaching current that flows along the continental slope of Iceland. The North Icelandic Jet advects overflow water into the Denmark Strait and constitutes a pathway that is distinct from the East Greenland Current. It is a cold current that runs west across the top of Iceland, then southwest between Greenland and Iceland at a depth of about 600 metres (almost 2,000 feet). The North Icelandic Jet is deep and narrow (about 12 mile wide) and can carry more than a million cubic meters of water per second.

It was not discovered until 2004. It was initially studied and described by two Icelandic Marine Research Institute’s specialists, Steingrímur Jónsson (also a professor at the University of Akureyri, and Hédinn Valdimarsson).

The current was found to be a key element of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

References

• Kjetil Våge, Robert S. Pickart, Michael A. Spall, Héðinn Valdimarsson, Steingrímur Jónsson, Daniel J. Torres, Svein Østerhus & Tor Eldevik, Significant role of the North Icelandic Jet in the formation of Denmark Strait overflow water, Nature Geoscience 4, 723–727 (2011) doi:10.1038/ngeo1234
• Steingrimur Jonsson and Hedinn Valdimarsson, A new path for the Denmark Strait overflow water from the Iceland, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L03305, doi:10.1029/2003GL019214
• Stefanie Semper, Kjetil Våge, Robert S. Pickart, Héðinn Valdimarsson, Daniel J. Torres & Steingrímur Jónsson, The emergence of the North Icelandic Jet and its evolution from Northeast Iceland to Denmark Strait, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49, 2499-2521, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-19-0088.1