The mean sea level pressure gradient across the Denmark Strait as an indicator of conditions in the North Icelandic Irminger Current

Winter means of the atmospheric sea level pressure gradient across the Denmark Strait were correlated to a time series of temperatures at a repeat hydrographic station, S3, in the waters north of Iceland. These data show that variations in North Icelandic shelf waters are closely related to the gradient. The correlation between 3-year moving averages of the gradient and the temperature at S3 of the following year was 0.70. This climatic relation clearly reflected the abrupt change from Atlantic to Arctic conditions on the North Icelandic shelf in the 1960s and the variability since then.