scholarly journals The Summer Cyclone Maximum over the Central Arctic Ocean

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1048-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Serreze ◽  
Andrew P. Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Central Arctic Ocean ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Northern High Latitude ◽  
Separate Region ◽  
Summer Maximum

Abstract A fascinating feature of the northern high-latitude circulation is a prominent summer maximum in cyclone activity over the Arctic Ocean, centered near the North Pole in the long-term mean. This pattern is associated with the influx of lows generated over the Eurasian continent and cyclogenesis over the Arctic Ocean itself. Its seasonal onset is linked to the following: an eastward shift in the Urals trough, migration of the 500-hPa vortex core to near the pole, and development of a separate region of high-latitude baroclinicity. The latter two features are consistent with differential atmospheric heating between the Arctic Ocean and snow-free land. Variability in the strength of the cyclone pattern can be broadly linked to the phase of the summer northern annular mode. When the cyclone pattern is well developed, the 500-hPa vortex is especially strong and symmetric about the pole, with negative sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies over the pole and positive anomalies over middle latitudes. Net precipitation tends to be anomalously positive over the Arctic Ocean. When poorly developed, the opposite holds.

scholarly journals Does the Summer Arctic Frontal Zone Influence Arctic Ocean Cyclone Activity?

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 4977-4993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex D. Crawford ◽  
Mark C. Serreze
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Frontal Zone ◽  
External Source ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Cyclone Activity ◽  
Central Arctic Ocean ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Summer Maximum ◽  
Horizontal Temperature Gradients

Abstract Extratropical cyclone activity over the central Arctic Ocean reaches its peak in summer. Previous research has argued for the existence of two external source regions for cyclones contributing to this summer maximum: the Eurasian continent interior and a narrow band of strong horizontal temperature gradients along the Arctic coastline known as the Arctic frontal zone (AFZ). This study incorporates data from an atmospheric reanalysis and an advanced cyclone detection and tracking algorithm to critically evaluate the relationship between the summer AFZ and cyclone activity in the central Arctic Ocean. Analysis of both individual cyclone tracks and seasonal fields of cyclone characteristics shows that the Arctic coast (and therefore the AFZ) is not a region of cyclogenesis. Rather, the AFZ acts as an intensification area for systems forming over Eurasia. As these systems migrate toward the Arctic Ocean, they experience greater deepening in situations when the AFZ is strong at midtropospheric levels. On a broader scale, intensity of the summer AFZ at midtropospheric levels has a positive correlation with cyclone intensity in the Arctic Ocean during summer, even when controlling for variability in the northern annular mode. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that the summer AFZ can intensify cyclones that cross the coast into the Arctic Ocean, but focused modeling studies are needed to disentangle the relative importance of the AFZ, large-scale circulation patterns, and topographic controls.

Expanding the Cenozoic paleoceanographic record in the Central Arctic Ocean: IODP Expedition 302 Synthesis

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Backman ◽  
Kathryn Moran
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Central Arctic Ocean ◽  
The North ◽  
Thermal Maximum ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Recovered Material

AbstractThe Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) proved to be one of the most transformational missions in almost 40 year of scientific ocean drilling. ACEX recovered the first Cenozoic sedimentary sequence from the Arctic Ocean and extended earlier piston core records from ≈1.5 Ma back to ≈56 Ma. The results have had a major impact in paleoceanography even though the recovered sediments represents only 29% of Cenozoic time. The missing time intervals were primarily the result of two unexpected hiatuses. This important Cenozoic paleoceanographic record was reconstructed from a total of 339 m sediments. The wide range of analyses conducted on the recovered material, along with studies that integrated regional tectonics and geophysical data, produced surprising results including high Arctic Ocean surface water temperatures and a hydrologically active climate during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the occurrence of a fresher water Arctic in the Eocene, ice-rafted debris as old as middle Eocene, a middle Eocene environment rife with organic carbon, and ventilation of the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic through the Fram Strait near the early-middle Miocene boundary. Taken together, these results have transformed our view of the Cenozoic Arctic Ocean and its role in the Earth climate system.

Arctic Ocean State-Changes: Self Interests and Common Interests

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 511-525
Author(s):  
Paul Arthur Berkman
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
International Governance ◽  
State Change ◽  
Central Arctic Ocean ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Free Region ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
State Changes

Abstract Environmental and geopolitical state-changes are the underlying first principles of the diverse stakeholder positioning in the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean is changing from an ice-covered region to an ice-free region during the summer, which is an environmental state-change. As provided under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the central Arctic Ocean currently involves “High-Seas” (beyond the “Exclusive Economic Zones”) and the underlying “Area” of the deep-sea floor (beyond the “Continental Shelves”). Governance applications of this ‘donut’ demography – with international space surrounded by sovereign sectors – would be a geopolitical state-change in the Arctic Ocean. International governance strategies and applications for the central Arctic Ocean have far-reaching implications for the stewardship of other international spaces, which between Antarctica and the ocean beyond national jurisdictions account for nearly 75 percent of the Earth’s surface. In view of planetary-scale strategies for humankind, with frameworks such as climate, the Arctic Ocean underscores the challenges and opportunities to balance the governance of nation states and international spaces centuries into the future.

Danian Mollusks from the Prince Creek Formation, Northern Alaska, and Implications for Arctic Ocean Paleogeography

1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (S35) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louie Marincovich
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Molluscan Fauna ◽  
Endemic Genera ◽  
Northern Alaska

The marine molluscan fauna of the Prince Creek Formation near Ocean Point, northern Alaska, is of Danian age. It is the only diverse and abundant Danian molluscan fauna known from the Arctic Ocean realm, and is the first evidence for an indigenous Paleocene shallow-water biota within a discrete Arctic Ocean Basin faunal province.A high percentage of endemic species, and two endemic genera, emphasize the degree to which the Arctic Ocean was geographically isolated from the world ocean during the earliest Tertiary. Many of the well-preserved Ocean Point mollusks, however, also occur in Danian faunas of the North American Western Interior, the Canadian Arctic Islands, Svalbard, and northwestern Europe, and are the basis for relating this Arctic Ocean fauna to that of the Danian world ocean.The Arctic Ocean was a Danian refugium for some genera that became extinct elsewhere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. At the same time, this nearly landlocked ocean fostered the evolution of new taxa that later in the Paleogene migrated into the world ocean by way of the northeastern Atlantic. The first Cenozoic occurrences are reported for the bivalves Integricardium (Integricardium), Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma), Placunopsis, Tancredia (Tancredia), and Tellinimera, and the oldest Cenozoic records given for the bivalves Gari (Garum), Neilo, and Yoldia (Cnesterium). Among the 25 species in the molluscan fauna are four new gastropod species, Amauropsis fetteri, Ellipsoscapha sohli, Mathilda (Fimbriatella) amundseni, and Polinices (Euspira) repenningi, two new bivalve genera, Arcticlam and Mytilon, and 15 new bivalve species, Arcticlam nanseni, Corbula (Caryocorbula) betsyae, Crenella kannoi, Cyrtodaria katieae, Gari (Garum) brouwersae, Integricardium (Integricardium) keenae, Mytilon theresae, Neilo gryci, Nucula (Nucula) micheleae, Nuculana (Jupiteria) moriyai, Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma) hargrovei, Placunopsis rothi, Tancredia (Tancredia) slavichi, Tellinimera kauffmani, and Yoldia (Cnesterium) gladenkovi.

scholarly journals Carbon cycling in the Arctic Archipelago: the export of Pacific carbon to the North Atlantic

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 971-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Shadwick ◽  
T. Papakyriakou ◽  
A. E. F. Prowe ◽  
D. Leong ◽  
S. A. Moore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Carbon ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract. The Arctic Ocean is expected to be disproportionately sensitive to climatic changes, and is thought to be an area where such changes might be detected. The Arctic hydrological cycle is influenced by: runoff and precipitation, sea ice formation/melting, and the inflow of saline waters from Bering and Fram Straits and the Barents Sea Shelf. Pacific water is recognizable as intermediate salinity water, with high concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), flowing from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic via the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We present DIC data from an east-west section through the Archipelago, as part of the Canadian International Polar Year initiatives. The fractions of Pacific and Arctic Ocean waters leaving the Archipelago and entering Baffin Bay, and subsequently the North Atlantic, are computed. The eastward transport of carbon from the Pacific, via the Arctic, to the North Atlantic is estimated. Altered mixing ratios of Pacific and freshwater in the Arctic Ocean have been recorded in recent decades. Any climatically driven alterations in the composition of waters leaving the Arctic Archipelago may have implications for anthropogenic CO2 uptake, and hence ocean acidification, in the subpolar and temperate North Atlantic.

Separating the influences of low-latitude warming and sea-ice loss on Northern Hemisphere climate change

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-59
Author(s):  
Paul J. Kushner ◽  
Russell Blackport ◽  
Kelly E. McCusker ◽  
Thomas Oudar ◽  
Lantao Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract Analyzing a multi-model ensemble of coupled climate model simulations forced with Arctic sea-ice loss using a two-parameter pattern-scaling technique to remove the cross-coupling between low- and high-latitude responses, the sensitivity to high-latitude sea-ice loss is isolated and contrasted to the sensitivity to low-latitude warming. In spite of some differences in experimental design, the Northern Hemisphere near-surface atmospheric sensitivity to sea-ice loss is found to be robust across models in the cold season; however, a larger inter-model spread is found at the surface in boreal summer, and in the free tropospheric circulation. In contrast, the sensitivity to low-latitude warming is most robust in the free troposphere and in the warm season, with more inter-model spread in the surface ocean and surface heat flux over the Northern Hemisphere. The robust signals associated with sea-ice loss include upward turbulent and longwave heat fluxes where sea-ice is lost, warming and freshening of the Arctic ocean, warming of the eastern North Pacific relative to the western North Pacific with upward turbulent heat fluxes in the Kuroshio extension, and salinification of the shallow shelf seas of the Arctic Ocean alongside freshening in the subpolar North Atlantic. In contrast, the robust signals associated with low-latitude warming include intensified ocean warming and upward latent heat fluxes near the western boundary currents, freshening of the Pacific Ocean, salinification of the North Atlantic, and downward sensible and longwave fluxes over the ocean.

scholarly journals Interpretation of Slar Imagery of Sea Ice in Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean

1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (73) ◽  
pp. 193-213
Author(s):  
Moira Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Pole ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Forces ◽  
Nares Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Edge ◽  
Airborne Sensors

AbstractSLAR imagery of Nares Strait was obtained on three flights carried out in. January, March, and August of 1973 by Canadian Forces Maritime Proving and Evaluation Unit in an Argus aircraft equipped with a Motorola APS-94D SLAR; the March flight also covered two lines in the Arctic Ocean, from Alert 10 the North Pole and from the Pole down the long. 4ºE. meridian to the ice edge at about lat. 80º N. No observations on the ground were possible, but -some back-up was available on all flights from visual observations recorded in the air, and on the March flight from infrared line-scan and vertical photography.The interpretation of ice features from the SLAR imagery is discussed, and the conclusion reached that in spite of certain ambiguities the technique has great potential which will increase with improving resolution, Extent of coverage per distance flown and independence of light and cloud conditions make it unique among airborne sensors.

scholarly journals The Mass Balance of the Sea Ice of the Arctic Ocean

1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (65) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Koerner
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ablation Rate ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
First Year ◽  
The North ◽  
Ice Accumulation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ridged Ice ◽  
Ice Production

AbstractFrom data taken on the British Trans-Arctic Expedition it is calculated that 9% of the Arctic Ocean surface between the North Pole and Spitsbergen was hummocked or ridged ice, 17% was unridged ice less than a year old, 73% was unridged old ice and 0.6% was ice-free. The mode of 250 thickness measurements taken through level areas of old floes along the entire traverse lies between 2.25 and 2.75 m. The mean end-of-winter thickness of the ice is calculated to be 4.6 m in the Pacific Gyral and 3.9 m in the Trans-Polar Drift Stream. From measurements of the percentage coverage and thickness of the various ice forms, it is calculated that the total annual ice accumulation in the Arctic Ocean is equivalent to a continuous layer of ice 1.1 m thick. 47% of this accumulation occurs in ice-free areas and under ice less than 1 year old. 20% of the total ice production is either directly or indirectly related to ridging or hummocking. An ice-ablation rate of 500 kg m−2 measured on a level area of a multi-year floe is compared with the rate on deformed and ponded ice. Greatest melting occurs on new hummocks and least on old smooth hummocks. The annual balance of ice older than 1 year but younger than multi-year ice is calculated from a knowledge of ice-drift patterns and the percentage coverage of first-year ice. The same calculations give a mean-maximum drift period of 5 years for ice in the Trans-Polar Drift Stream and 16 years in the Pacific Gyral. It is calculated that for the period February 1968 to May 1969 the annual ice export was 5 580 km3.

scholarly journals Spatial Distribution of Atmospheric Aerosol Physicochemical Characteristics in the Russian Sector of the Arctic Ocean

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1170
Author(s):  
Sergey Sakerin ◽  
Dmitry Kabanov ◽  
Valery Makarov ◽  
Viktor Pol’kin ◽  
Svetlana Popova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

The results from studies of aerosol in the Arctic atmosphere are presented: the aerosol optical depth (AOD), the concentrations of aerosol and black carbon, as well as the chemical composition of the aerosol. The average aerosol characteristics, measured during nine expeditions (2007–2018) in the Eurasian sector of the Arctic Ocean, had been 0.068 for AOD (0.5 µm); 2.95 cm−3 for particle number concentrations; 32.1 ng/m3 for black carbon mass concentrations. Approximately two–fold decrease of the average characteristics in the eastern direction (from the Barents Sea to Chukchi Sea) is revealed in aerosol spatial distribution. The average aerosol characteristics over the Barents Sea decrease in the northern direction: black carbon concentrations by a factor of 1.5; particle concentrations by a factor of 3.7. These features of the spatial distribution are caused mainly by changes in the content of fine aerosol, namely: by outflows of smokes from forest fires and anthropogenic aerosol. We considered separately the measurements of aerosol characteristics during two expeditions in 2019: in the north of the Barents Sea (April) and along the Northern Sea Route (July–September). In the second expedition the average aerosol characteristics turned out to be larger than multiyear values: AOD reached 0.36, particle concentration up to 8.6 cm−3, and black carbon concentration up to 179 ng/m3. The increased aerosol content was affected by frequent outflows of smoke from forest fires. The main (99%) contribution to the elemental composition of aerosol in the study regions was due to Ca, K, Fe, Zn, Br, Ni, Cu, Mn, and Sr. The spatial distribution of the chemical composition of aerosols was analogous to that of microphysical characteristics. The lowest concentrations of organic and elemental carbon (OC, EC) and of most elements are observed in April in the north of the Barents Sea, and the maximal concentrations in Far East seas and in the south of the Barents Sea. The average contents of carbon in aerosol over seas of the Asian sector of the Arctic Ocean are OC = 629 ng/m3, EC = 47 ng/m3.

scholarly journals Cooling down the world oceans and the earth by enhancing the North Atlantic Ocean current

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian David Hunt ◽  
Andreas Nascimento ◽  
Fabio A. Diuana ◽  
Natália de Assis Brasil Weber ◽  
Gabriel Malta Castro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ocean Current ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Albedo Effect ◽  
Arctic Atmosphere

AbstractThe world is going through intensive changes due to global warming. It is well known that the reduction in ice cover in the Arctic Ocean further contributes to increasing the atmospheric Arctic temperature due to the reduction of the albedo effect and increase in heat absorbed by the ocean’s surface. The Arctic ice cover also works like an insulation sheet, keeping the heat in the ocean from dissipating into the cold Arctic atmosphere. Increasing the salinity of the Arctic Ocean surface would allow the warmer and less salty North Atlantic Ocean current to flow on the surface of the Arctic Ocean considerably increasing the temperature of the Arctic atmosphere and release the ocean heat trapped under the ice. This paper argues that if the North Atlantic Ocean current could maintain the Arctic Ocean ice-free during the winter, the longwave radiation heat loss into space would be larger than the increase in heat absorption due to the albedo effect. This paper presents details of the fundamentals of the Arctic Ocean circulation and presents three possible approaches for increasing the salinity of the surface water of the Arctic Ocean. It then discusses that increasing the salinity of the Arctic Ocean would warm the atmosphere of the Arctic region, but cool down the oceans and possibly the Earth. However, it might take thousands of years for the effects of cooling the oceans to cool the global average atmospheric temperature.

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