<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" specific-use="SMUR" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-5183</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Seasonal reversal of circulation in Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay), Greenland</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Latuta</surname>
<given-names>Linda</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1953-4750</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lenetsky</surname>
<given-names>Jed E.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Darelius</surname>
<given-names>Elin</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3060-0317</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Smedsrud</surname>
<given-names>Lars H.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7391-0740</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>07</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>30</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Linda Latuta et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5183/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5183/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5183/egusphere-2026-5183.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5183/egusphere-2026-5183.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay), located in West Greenland, is a highly productive ecosystem and a major site of glacier-ocean interaction with the Kangia (Ilulissat Icefjord), yet its circulation and the mechanisms governing its seasonal variability have not been previously investigated. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of upper-ocean velocity from the GLORYS12 reanalysis (1993&amp;ndash;2026) provides the first quantitative description of the bay&apos;s dominant circulation mode, EOF1, which explains 55.8 % of the variance and is coherent through the upper ~130 m. EOF1 reveals a seasonal reversal between a cyclonic regime, in which an intensified West Greenland Current establishes cyclonic circulation in the bay, and an anticyclonic regime, in which the flow within the bay reverses. The seasonal cycle accounts for 49.5 % of the mode&apos;s variance, with the cyclonic regime prevailing from approximately May&amp;ndash;June to November&amp;ndash;December (with a peak in August), and the anticyclonic regime dominating in January&amp;ndash;April. The alternation is consistent with a reversal of the along-shelf ocean surface stress forcing, strongly correlated with the circulation mode. The bay&apos;s circulation is, in turn, coherent with the West Greenland Current system at Davis Strait, where observed near-surface along-strait velocities flowing into Baffin Bay approximately double during the cyclonic regime and fall to near zero during the anticyclonic regime. Temperature transport towards the bay along the West Greenland shelf is an order of magnitude larger during the cyclonic regime than during the anticyclonic regime (+7.6 against +0.7 TW). Independent evidence from seven drifting-iceberg trajectories (June&amp;ndash;July 2025) and an Argo float (June&amp;ndash;October 2022) is qualitatively in line with these regimes. By governing the seasonal delivery of the warmest, fastest-flowing West Greenland shelf water into the bay, this circulation mode affects the bay&apos;s heat budget and the near-surface transport of freshwater, nutrients, and larvae that support the region&apos;s fisheries.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="30"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Norges Forskningsråd</funding-source>
<award-id>324520</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>L. Meltzers Høyskolefond</funding-source>
<award-id>32375</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>National Science Foundation</funding-source>
<award-id>OPP1902595</award-id>
<award-id>OPP1902628</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>