High resolution modelling of the North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC)

International audienceThe northward inflow of Atlantic Water through Denmark Strait ? the North Icelandic Irminger Current (NIIC) ? is simulated with a numerical model of the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. The model uses the technique of adaptive grid refinement which allows a high spatial resolution (1 km horizontal, 10 m vertical) around Iceland. The model is used to assess time and space variability of volume and heat fluxes for the years 1997?2003. Passive tracers are applied to study origin and composition of NIIC water masses. The NIIC originates from two sources: the Irminger Current, flowing as part of the sub-polar gyre in 100?500 m depth along the Reykjanes Ridge and the shallow Icelandic coastal current, flowing eastward on the south Icelandic shelf. The ratio between the deep and shallow branch is 0.7/0.2 Sv. The NIIC continues as a warm and saline branch northward through Denmark Strait where it entrains large amounts of polar water due to the collision with the southward flowing East Greenland Current. Tracer model results indicate that north of Denmark Strait at Hornbanki section (at 21°30' W from 66°40' N to 67°30' N), the NIIC is composed of 43% water masses of Atlantic origin (AW) originating from the south and 57% entrained polar or Arctic water masses (PW) coming from the north. After passing Denmark Strait, the NIIC follows the coast line north-eastward where it influences the hydrography of north Icelandic waters. Volume and heat transport is highly variable and depends strongly on the wind field north of Denmark Strait. Highest monthly mean transport rates at Hornbanki occur in summer (0.75 Sv) when northerly winds are weak, lowest transport is observed in winter (0.35 Sv). Summer heat flux rates (14 TW) can be even three times higher than in winter (4 TW). Strong variability can also be observed on the interannual scale. In particular the winter 2002/2003 showed anomalous high transport and heat flux rates. During the period 1997 to 2003 decreasing northerly winds caused an increase of the NIIC volume and heat transport by 30%, leading to a warming of North Icelandic shelf by around 0.5K

Transfer Functions of Infinite-Dimensional Systems: Positive Realness and Stabilization

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Infinite-dimensional Lur'e systems with almost periodic forcing

We consider forced Lur’e systems in which the linear dynamic component is an infinite-dimensional well-posed system. Numerous physically motivated delay- and partial-differential equa-tions are known to belong to this class of infinite-dimensional systems. We present refinements ofrecent incremental input-to-state stability results [14] and use them to derive convergence results fortrajectories generated by Stepanov almost periodic inputs. In particular, we show that the incrementalstability conditions guarantee that for every Stepanov almost periodic input there exists a unique pairof state and output signals which are almost periodic and Stepanov almost periodic, respectively. Thealmost periods of the state and output signals are shown to be closely related to the almost periodsof the input, and a natural module containment result is established. All state and output signalsgenerated by the same Stepanov almost periodic input approach the almost periodic state and theStepanov almost periodic output in a suitable sense, respectively, as time goes to infinity. The sufficientconditions guaranteeing incremental input-to-state stability and the existence of almost periodic stateand Stepanov almost periodic output signals are reminiscent of the conditions featuring in well-knownabsolute stability criteria such as the complex Aizerman conjecture and the circle criterion