North Atlantic Deep Water

[2] CFCs are anthropogenic substances that enter the surface of the ocean from gas exchange with the atmosphere.

[3] In the conveyor belt model of thermohaline circulation of the world's oceans, the sinking of NADW pulls the waters of the North Atlantic drift northward.

However, this is almost certainly an oversimplification of the actual relationship between NADW formation and the strength of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic drift.

[6] During a positive NAO phase, conditions exist for strong winter storms to develop.

ULSW forms at a density lower than CLSW and has a CFC maximum between 1200 and 1500 m in the subtropical North Atlantic.

Eddies of cold less saline ULSW have similar densities of warmer saltier water and flow along the DWBC, but maintain their high CFCs.

The ULSW eddies erode rapidly as they mix laterally with this warmer saltier water.

ISOW enters the eastern North Atlantic over the Iceland-Scotland Ridge through the Faeroe Bank Channel at a depth of 850 m, with some water flowing over the shallower Iceland-Faeroe Rise.

AIW's tritium and CFC signature is observed in DSOW at the base of the Greenland continental slope.

[6] Both the DSOW and ISOW flow around the Irminger Basin and Labrador Sea in a deep boundary current.

Deep convection in the Labrador Sea during the late 1980s and early 1990s resulted in CLSW with a lower CFC concentration due to downward mixing.

Lower North Atlantic Deep Water (LNADW), originating in the Greenland and Norwegian seas, brings high salinity, oxygen, and freon concentrations towards to the Romanche Trench, an equatorial fracture zone in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR).

[12] It is believed that North Atlantic Deep Water formation has been dramatically reduced at times during the past (such as during the Younger Dryas or during Heinrich events), and that this might correlate with a decrease in the strength of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic drift, in turn cooling the climate of northwestern Europe.

The North Atlantic Deep Water is considered to be one of several possible tipping points in the climate system .
The circulation patterns in the North Atlantic Ocean. Cold, dense water is shown in blue, flowing south from upper latitudes, while warm, less dense water, shown in red, flows north from low latitudes. [ 7 ]
The NADW flows southward through the Atlantic, approaching the Antarctic Bottom Water past the Mid-Atlantic Ridge .