Labrador Sea Water

Labrador Sea Water (LSW) is an intermediate-to-deep water mass formed by deep open-ocean convection in the Labrador Sea during severe winters, when surface cooling overturns the water column to depths sometimes exceeding 2000 meters. It is cold, relatively fresh, weakly stratified, and rich in dissolved oxygen, and it spreads through the North Atlantic as a recognizable layer near 1000 to 2000 meters. LSW is a component of the upper North Atlantic Deep Water and feeds the Deep Western Boundary Current, making its formation rate a sensitive indicator of the strength of Atlantic overturning.