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The largest dense-water plume feeding the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation from the Nordic seas comes from Denmark Strait overflow water. Measurements of hydrography and water velocity north of Iceland and ocean model simulations indicate that a significant part of this water is supplied by the North Icelandic Jet.

Submarine melting has been suggested as a trigger for the widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers in Greenland. An analysis of oceanographic data from the fjord off Helheim Glacier, Greenland, suggests the presence of light Arctic and dense Atlantic waters in the fjord and that the melting circulation is more complex than thought.

Deep convection in the subpolar North Atlantic, an important component of the global ocean circulation, has been absent in recent years. Profiling float data from the Argo programme document the return of deep mixing to the subpolar gyre in both the Labrador and Irminger seas in the winter of 2007–2008.

Warm Atlantic water circulates cyclonically around the Nordic Seas while gradually cooling. Here, the authors show that the retreat of the ice edge toward Greenland has led to further transformation of this water mass, which is no longer situated underneath sea ice when transiting the western Iceland Sea in winter.

The salinity of the Nordic Seas dropped between 1965 and 1990. Observations and a model hindcast suggest the source of this freshwater anomaly was water from the Atlantic inflow, instead of the relatively fresh Arctic Ocean as previously suspected.

In contrast to the North Atlantic, the projected overturning circulation in the Nordic Seas increases throughout most of the 21st century in global climate model simulations. The Nordic Seas could therefore be a stabilizing factor in the future AMOC.

An increase in ocean transport from the North Atlantic into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean is warming the region. Observations from 1993 to 2016 show a significant increase in heat transport after 2001, with the heat being transported over the Greenland–Scotland Ridge.

Dense water from the Nordic Seas sustains the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, yet the upstream pathways are not fully known. Here, the authors provide evidence of a deep current between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which supplies 50% of the transport through the Faroe Bank Channel overflow.