Role and variability of mesoscale and submesoscale dynamics along the west coast of Greenland

Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) mass losses have accelerated over the recent decades resulting in freshwater input to the adjacent seas. Freshwater fluxes set the upper stratification in the Labrador Sea (LS) and play an important role also because ecosystem processes are highly sensitive to such stratification. To investigate the role of model resolution and submesoscale circulations in exporting heat and salinity anomalies towards the center of the LS, we perform a set of regional simulations with varying horizontal resolution, with and without meltwater inflows from the Greenland fjords. Submesoscale contribution in the vorticity budget shows strong seasonal and interannual variability, with a clear maximum during summer. Intense lateral density gradients created by summer time meltwater inflow, are responsible for the summer peak. During the winter time, submesoscale activity is low but mesoscale variability is at its maximum. Despite the volumetric large and seasonal fresh water inputs, the area of enhanced summer submesoscale activity is confined along the coast by the strong coastal current system, and such confinement is greater, in the model, at the highest resolution.