Observing winds and currents in the Iceland Basin

The transfer of energy between the atmosphere and the ocean is one of the major exchanges of the climate system. But how does one even observe this? In a new paper, Klenz et al. (2022), the winds and currents over the Iceland Basin were measured with a promising new platform, a wind-sensing type of surface drifter called a Minimet drifter. Importantly, the co-location of wind and current measurements allow wind power input to the ocean to be readily computed. Similar measurements on a larger scale could help to refine our understanding of the wind-driven currents, in particular, the role of small-scale, high-frequency events in both atmosphere and ocean in shaping the energy exchange.

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