scholarly journals An analysis of Atlantic water in the Arctic Ocean using the Arctic subpolar gyre state estimate and observations

2021 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 102685
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Grabon ◽  
John M. Toole ◽  
An T. Nguyen ◽  
Richard A. Krishfield
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Subpolar Gyre ◽  
State Estimate ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

The role of sea ice for plastic pollution in the Arctic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilka Peeken ◽  
Elisa Bergami ◽  
Ilaria Corsi ◽  
Benedikt Hufnagl ◽  
Christian Katlein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

<p>Marine plastic pollution is a growing worldwide environmental concern as recent reports indicate that increasing quantities of litter disperse into secluded environments, including Polar Regions. Plastic degrades into smaller fragments under the influence of sunlight, temperature changes, mechanic abrasion and wave action resulting in small particles < 5mm called microplastics (MP). Sea ice cores, collected in the Arctic Ocean have so far revealed extremely high concentrations of very small microplastic particles, which might be transferred in the ecosystem with so far unknown consequences for the ice dependant marine food chain.  Sea ice has long been recognised as a transport vehicle for any contaminates entering the Arctic Ocean from various long range and local sources. The Fram Strait is hereby both, a major inflow gateway of warm Atlantic water, with any anthropogenic imprints and the major outflow region of sea ice originating from the Siberian shelves and carried via the Transpolar Drift. The studied sea ice revealed a unique footprint of microplastic pollution, which were related to different water masses and indicating different source regions. Climate change in the Arctic include loss of sea ice, therefore, large fractions of the embedded plastic particles might be released and have an impact on living systems. By combining modeling of sea ice origin and growth, MP particle trajectories in the water column as well as MPs long-range transport via particle tracking and transport models we get first insights  about the sources and pathways of MP in the Arctic Ocean and beyond and how this might affect the Arctic ecosystem.</p>

scholarly journals Intensification of the Atlantic Water Supply to the Arctic Ocean Through Fram Strait Induced by Arctic Sea Ice Decline

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Claudia Wekerle ◽  
Xuezhu Wang ◽  
Sergey Danilov ◽  
Nikolay Koldunov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Sea Ice Decline ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

scholarly journals Circulation and transformation of Atlantic water in the Eurasian Basin and the contribution of the Fram Strait inflow branch to the Arctic Ocean heat budget

2015 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 128-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Rudels ◽  
Meri Korhonen ◽  
Ursula Schauer ◽  
Sergey Pisarev ◽  
Benjamin Rabe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Heat Budget ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Eurasian Basin

A satellite-based Lagrangian perspective on Atlantic Water fractionation in the Nordic Seas

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Chafik ◽  
Sara Broomé
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Bottom Topography ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Nordic Seas ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Outer Branch

<p>The Arctic Ocean has been receiving more of the warm and saline Atlantic Water in the past decades. This water mass enters the Arctic Ocean via two Arctic gateways: the Barents Sea Opening and the Fram Strait. Here, we focus on the fractionation of Atlantic Water at these two gateways using a Lagrangian approach based on satellite-derived geostrophic velocities. Simulated particles are released at 70N at the inner and outer branch of the North Atlantic current system in the Nordic Seas. The trajectories toward the Fram Strait and Barents Sea Opening are found to be largely steered by the bottom topography and there is an indication of an anti-phase relationship in the number of particles reaching the gateways. There is, however, a significant cross-over of particles from the outer branch to the inner branch and into the Barents Sea, which is found to be related to high eddy kinetic energy between the branches. This cross-over may be important for Arctic climate variability.</p>

scholarly journals Impact of the Arctic Ocean Atlantic water layer on Siberian shelf hydrography

2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (C8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor A. Dmitrenko ◽  
Sergey A. Kirillov ◽  
L. Bruno Tremblay ◽  
Dorothea Bauch ◽  
Jens A. Hölemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Layer ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Siberian Shelf

scholarly journals The Movement of Atlantic Water in the Arctic Ocean

ARCTIC ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.K. Coachman ◽  
C.A. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Arctic Basin ◽  
Core Layer ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Percentage Retention ◽  
Oceanographic Data ◽  
Vertical Eddy

Re-evaluates sixty years' oceanographic data from the Arctic Ocean, examining nearly 300 deep-water stations, and using the "core-layer" method of Wust to interpret the movement of the Atlantic layer. Stations are grouped in 16 areas and the average curve for each group plotted on a temperature-salinity diagram. Temperature and salinity changes which take place in the Atlantic water while and entity in the Arctic Basin are graphed. The temperature maximum is reduced by about 3.5 C, and the salinity at max. temperature is reduced by about 0.2 %. Superimposed on the T-S relationship is an arbitrary scale indicating percentage retention of the original characteristics. The velocity of the Atlantic layer is found (from current velocity, eddy coefficients and station data) to range 1-10 cm/sec and values of Kz (vertical eddy coefficient) generally to range 1-20 sq cm/sec. Percentage retention of characteristics from the T-S diagram is mapped to suggest a relation between the flow of Atlantic water and bathymetry, distance, time, as well as the T-S features. Assuming the velocity along the core to be 3 cm/sec, the constant vertical eddy coefficient to be 10 sq cm/sec, and with other assumptions on temperature distribution, an estimate of 8,000,000 sq cm/sec is obtained for the constant lateral eddy coefficient.

scholarly journals Circulation timescales of Atlantic Water in the Arctic Ocean determined from anthropogenic radionuclides

Ocean Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-129
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Wefing ◽  
Núria Casacuberta ◽  
Marcus Christl ◽  
Nicolas Gruber ◽  
John N. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Anthropogenic Radionuclides ◽  
East Greenland Current ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Lateral Mixing ◽  
Binary Mixing

Abstract. The inflow of Atlantic Water to the Arctic Ocean is a crucial determinant for the future trajectory of this ocean basin with regard to warming, loss of sea ice, and ocean acidification. Yet many details of the fate and circulation of these waters within the Arctic remain unclear. Here, we use the two long-lived anthropogenic radionuclides 129I and 236U together with two age models to constrain the pathways and circulation times of Atlantic Water in the surface (10–35 m depth) and in the mid-depth Atlantic layer (250–800 m depth). We thereby benefit from the unique time-dependent tagging of Atlantic Water by these two isotopes. In the surface layer, a binary mixing model yields tracer ages of Atlantic Water between 9–16 years in the Amundsen Basin, 12–17 years in the Fram Strait (East Greenland Current), and up to 20 years in the Canada Basin, reflecting the pathways of Atlantic Water through the Arctic and their exiting through the Fram Strait. In the mid-depth Atlantic layer (250–800 m), the transit time distribution (TTD) model yields mean ages in the central Arctic ranging between 15 and 55 years, while the mode ages representing the most probable ages of the TTD range between 3 and 30 years. The estimated mean ages are overall in good agreement with previous studies using artificial radionuclides or ventilation tracers. Although we find the overall flow to be dominated by advection, the shift in the mode age towards a younger age compared to the mean age also reflects the presence of a substantial amount of lateral mixing. For applications interested in how fast signals are transported into the Arctic's interior, the mode age appears to be a suitable measure. The short mode ages obtained in this study suggest that changes in the properties of Atlantic Water will quickly spread through the Arctic Ocean and can lead to relatively rapid changes throughout the upper water column in future years.

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