Drivers of sea ice decline in the Fram Strait and north of Svalbard 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Grynczel ◽  
Agnieszka Beszczynska-Moeller ◽  
Waldemar Walczowski
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Origin

<p>The Arctic Ocean is undergoing rapid change. Satellite observations indicate significant negative Arctic sea ice extent trends in all months and substantial reduction of winter sea ice in the Atlantic sector. One of the possible reasons can be sought in the observed warming of Atlantic water, carried through Fram Strait into the Arctic Ocean. Fram Strait, as well as the region north of Svalbard, play a key role in controlling the amount of oceanic heat supplied to the Arctic Ocean and are the place of dynamic interaction between the ocean and sea ice. Shrinking sea ice cover in the southern part of Nansen Basin (north of Svalbard) and shifting the ice edge in Fram Strait are driven by the interplay between increased advection of oceanic heat in the Atlantic origin water and changes in the local atmospheric conditions.</p><p>Processes related to the loss of sea ice and the upward transport of heat from the layers of the Arctic Ocean occupied by the Atlantic water are still not fully explored, but higher than average temperature of Atlantic inflow in the Nordic Seas influence the upper ocean stratification and ice cover in the Arctic Ocean, in particular in the north of Svalbard area. The regional sea ice cover decline is statistically signifcant in all months, but the largest changes in the Nansen Basin are observed in winter season. The winter sea ice loss north of Svalbard is most pronounced above the core of the inflow warm Atlantic water. The basis for this hypothesis of the research is that continuously shrinking sea ice cover in the region north of Svalbard and withdrawal of the sea ice cover towards the northeast are driven by the interplay between increased oceanic heat in the Atlantic origin water and changes in the local atmospheric conditions, that can result in the increased ocean-air-sea ice exchange in winter seasons. In the current study we describe seasonal, interannual and decadal variability of concentration, drift, and thickness of sea ice in two regions, the north of Svalbard and central part of the Fram Strait, based on the satellite observations. To analyze the observed changes in the sea ice cover in relation to Atlantic water variability and atmospheric forcing we employ hydrographic data from the repeated CTD sections and new atmospheric reanalysis from ERA5. Atlantic water variability is described based on the set of summer synoptic sections across the Fram Strait branch of the Atlantic inflow that have been occupied annually since 1996 under the long-term observational program AREX of the Institute of Oceanology PAS. To elucidate driving mechanisms of the sea ice cover changes observed in different seasons in Fram Strait and north of Svalbard we analyze changes in the temperature, heat content and transport of the Atlantic water and describe their potential links to variable atmospheric forcing, including air temperature, air-ocean fluxes, and changes in wind pattern and wind stress.</p>

Impact of Atlantic water variability on sea ice changes in the Fram Strait and north of Svalbard

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Grynczel ◽  
Agnieszka Beszczynska-Moeller ◽  
Waldemar Walczowski
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
West Spitsbergen

<p>Recent satellite passive microwave observations indicate significant negative Arctic sea ice extent trends in all months and substantial reduction of winter sea ice in the Atlantic sector. Warm and salty oceanic water masses from the North Atlantic flow towards the Arctic Ocean along the eastern Fram Strait, carried by the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC). Fram Strait, as well as the region north of Svalbard, play a key role in controlling the amount of oceanic heat supplied to the Arctic Ocean and are the place of dynamic interaction between the ocean and sea ice. The north of Svalbard area is one of the regions where the substantial changes in sea ice concentrations are observed both in summer and in winter. One of the possible reasons can be sought in the observed warming of Atlantic water, carried through Fram Strait into the Arctic Ocean. The main goal of this work is to analyse and explain the sea ice variability along main pathways of the Atlantic origin water (AW) in the context of observed warming of Atlantic water layer. Shrinking sea ice cover in the southern part of Nansen Basin (north of Svalbard) and shifting the ice edge in Fram Strait are driven by the interplay between increased advection of oceanic heat in the Atlantic origin water and changes in the local atmospheric conditions that result in the increased ocean-air-sea ice exchange in winter seasons. The basis for this hypothesis is warming of winter mean surface air temperature observed north of Svalbard and withdrawal of the sea ice cover towards the northeast, along with the pathways of water inflow in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean. Hydrographic data from vertical CTD profiles were collected during annual summer expeditions of the research vessel "Oceania", conducted in Fram Strait and the southern part of the Nansen Basin over the past two decades. The measurement strategy of the original research program AREX, which consists of the performance of cross-sections perpendicular to the presumed direction of the West Spitsbergen Current, allowed to observe changes in the properties and transport of the Atlantic Water carried to the Arctic Ocean. The analysis of past and present changes in the sea ice cover in relation to Atlantic water variability and atmospheric forcing employs hydrographic data from the repeated CTD sections, systematically collected since 1996 during annual summer Arctic long-term monitoring program AREX, satellite products of sea ice concentration and drift, and selected reanalysis data sets.</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 Arctic Ocean circulation and variability – advection and external forcing encounter constraints and local processes

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 2313-2376 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Rudels
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Intermediate Layers ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Almost All

Abstract. The first hydrographic data from the Arctic Ocean, the section from the Laptev Sea to the passage between Greenland and Svalbard obtained by Nansen on the drift by Fram 1893–1896, aptly illustrate the main features of Arctic Ocean oceanography and indicate possible processes active in transforming the water masses in the Arctic Ocean. Many, perhaps most, of these processes were identified already by Nansen, who put his mark on almost all subsequent research in the Arctic Ocean. Here we shall revisit some key questions and follow how our understanding has evolved from the early 20th century to present. What questions, if any, can now be regarded as solved and which remain still open? Five different but connected topics will be discussed: (1) The low salinity surface layer and the storage and export of freshwater. (2) The vertical heat transfer from the Atlantic water to sea ice and to the atmosphere. (3) The circulation and mixing of the two Atlantic inflow branches. (4) The formation and circulation of deep and bottom waters in the Arctic Ocean. (5) The exchanges through Fram Strait. Foci will be on the potential effects of increased freshwater input and reduced sea ice export on the freshwater storage and residence time in the Arctic Ocean, on the deep waters of the Makarov Basin and on the circulation and relative importance of the two inflows, over the Barents Sea and through Fram Strait, for the distribution of heat in the intermediate layers of the Arctic Ocean.

scholarly journals Liquid export of Arctic freshwater components through the Fram Strait 1998–2011

Ocean Science ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Rabe ◽  
P. A. Dodd ◽  
E. Hansen ◽  
E. Falck ◽  
U. Schauer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Meteoric Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ice Formation ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Pacific Water ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract. We estimated the magnitude and composition of southward liquid freshwater transports in the East Greenland Current near 79° N in the Western Fram Strait between 1998 and 2011. Previous studies have found this region to be an important pathway for liquid freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean to the Nordic Seas and the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. Our transport estimates are based on six hydrographic surveys between June and September and concurrent data from moored current meters. We combined concentrations of liquid freshwater, meteoric water (river water and precipitation), sea ice melt and brine from sea ice formation, and Pacific Water, presented in Dodd et al. (2012), with volume transport estimates from an inverse model. The average of the monthly snapshots of southward liquid freshwater transports between 10.6° W and 4° E is 100 ± 23 mSv (3160 ± 730 km3 yr−1), relative to a salinity of 34.9. This liquid freshwater transport consists of about 130% water from rivers and precipitation (meteoric water), 30% freshwater from the Pacific, and −60% (freshwater deficit) due to a mixture of sea ice melt and brine from sea ice formation. Pacific Water transports showed the highest variation in time, effectively vanishing in some of the surveys. Comparison of our results to the literature indicates that this was due to atmospherically driven variability in the advection of Pacific Water along different pathways through the Arctic Ocean. Variations in most liquid freshwater component transports appear to have been most strongly influenced by changes in the advection of these water masses to the Fram Strait. However, the local dynamics represented by the volume transports influenced the liquid freshwater component transports in individual years, in particular those of sea ice melt and brine from sea ice formation. Our results show a similar ratio of the transports of meteoric water and net sea ice melt as previous studies. However, we observed a significant increase in this ratio between the surveys in 1998 and in 2009. This can be attributed to higher concentrations of sea ice melt in 2009 that may have been due to enhanced advection of freshwater from the Beaufort Gyre to the Fram Strait. Known trends and variability in the Arctic liquid freshwater inflow from rivers are not likely to have had a significant influence on the variation of liquid freshwater component transports between our surveys. On the other hand, known freshwater inflow variability from the Pacific could have caused some of the variation we observed in the Fram Strait. The apparent absence of a trend in southward liquid freshwater transports through the Fram Strait and recent evidence of an increase in liquid freshwater storage in the Arctic Ocean raise the question: how fast will the accumulated liquid freshwater be exported from the Arctic Ocean to the deep water formation regions in the North Atlantic and will an increased export occur through the Fram Strait.

scholarly journals Arctic Ocean circulation and variability – advection and external forcing encounter constraints and local processes

Ocean Science ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Rudels
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Intermediate Layers ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Almost All

Abstract. The first hydrographic data from the Arctic Ocean, the section from the Laptev Sea to the passage between Greenland and Svalbard obtained by Nansen on his drift with Fram 1893–1896, aptly illustrate the main features of Arctic Ocean oceanography and indicate possible processes active in transforming the water masses in the Arctic Ocean. Many, perhaps most, processes were identified already by Nansen, who put his mark on almost all subsequent research in the Arctic. Here we shall revisit some key questions and follow how our understanding has evolved from the early 20th century to present. What questions, if any, can now be regarded as solved and which remain still open? Five different but connected topics will be discussed: (1) The low salinity surface layer and the storage and export of freshwater. (2) The vertical heat transfer from the Atlantic water to sea ice and to the atmosphere. (3) The circulation and mixing of the two Atlantic inflow branches. (4) The formation and circulation of deep and bottom waters in the Arctic Ocean. (5) The exchanges through Fram Strait. Foci will be on the potential effects of increased freshwater input and reduced sea ice export on the freshwater storage and residence time in the Arctic Ocean, on the deep waters of the Makarov Basin, and on the circulation and relative importance of the two inflows, over the Barents Sea and through Fram Strait, for the distribution of heat in the intermediate layers of the Arctic Ocean.

scholarly journals Influence of synoptic atmospheric conditions on movement of individual sea-ice floes in Fram Strait, late summer 2010

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (69) ◽  
pp. 445-450
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. King ◽  
Grant R. Bigg ◽  
Richard Hall
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Floes

AbstractIn this paper we investigate the effect on sea-ice movement of changes in the synoptic atmospheric conditions in late boreal summer 2010. Our study area is the western Fram Strait, a crucial passage for the transport of ice out of the Arctic basin. Ice dynamics here affect the movement of ice in the East Greenland Current, the transpolar drift and ice extent in the Arctic Ocean. In contrast to other times of the year, when the Fram Strait wind field is characterized by strong, persistent northerlies, we show that the weaker, more variable winds typical during late summer for the Fram Strait can slow movement of ice floes out of the area, thus slowing the export of ice from the Arctic Ocean at the end of summer, a time crucial for ice export. The Arctic Ocean could lose even more of the ice that survives the summer if this was not the case. This would leave the Arctic Ocean in an even more vulnerable position with regard to the amount of multi-year ice remaining the following summer.

scholarly journals Intensification of the Atlantic Water supply to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait induced by Arctic sea ice decline

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Claudia Wekerle ◽  
Xuezhu Wang ◽  
S. Danilov ◽  
Nikolay V. 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

Modifications of Atlantic inflow along the Fram Strait Branch to the Arctic Ocean and its variability north of Svalbard from ship-borne and moored observations in the last two decades.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller ◽  
Waldemar Walczowski ◽  
Agata Grynczel
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Vertical Structure ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Ocean Heat Content ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

<p>Understanding variable properties and dynamics of the Atlantic water (AW) inflow into the Arctic Ocean, and their impacts on ocean heat content, ocean-atmosphere-sea ice exchanges, changing sea ice cover and propagation of anomalies are key prerequisites to elucidate drivers and mechanisms behind the new, warmer regime of the Arctic Ocean. As the AW progress northwards, its properties are modified by ocean-atmosphere interactions, mixing and lateral exchanges. Warm anomalies reaching the Arctic Ocean can result from smaller heat loss during the AW northward passage through Fram Strait, and/or from an increased oceanic advection. Vertical structure of the Atlantic water layer implies the depth of winter convection and access to oceanic heat carried northward by the inflow.</p><p>During the last two decades warming of the Atlantic inflow has been reported to progress into the Arctic Ocean, however with strong interannual variations and quasi-periodic pulses of water with extraordinary high temperature. Here we present results from 20 years of annual hydrographic surveys, covering the Atlantic water inflow in the eastern Norwegian and Greenland seas, Fram Strait up to the southern Nansen Basin. Interannual changes in the AW properties and transport are analyzed with a focus on the en route modifications of AW inflow in the Fram Strait Branch and changes in the integrated ocean heat content.</p><p>After leaving Fram Strait, the part of AW continues eastward and enters the Arctic Ocean boundary current along different pathways north of Svalbard. The strongest ocean-atmosphere-sea ice interactions and lateral oceanic exchanges in this region lead to substantial local modification of the Atlantic inflow before it continues farther eastward around the rim of the Arctic Ocean. Observations from year-round moorings deployed since 2013 north of Svalbard are used to describe changes in the Atlantic water properties, vertical structure, and dynamics on monthly to seasonal and interannual time scales and their links to the upstream conditions and local and regional atmospheric forcing. Vertical heat fluxes from the Atlantic layer are derived to evaluate the ocean-air and ocean-sea ice exchanges in the only region of the Arctic Ocean where Atlantic-origin water has still contact with sea ice cover.</p>

scholarly journals Evolution of the Arctic Ocean Salinity, 2007–08: Contrast between the Canadian and the Eurasian Basins

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1705-1717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Lique ◽  
Gilles Garric ◽  
Anne-Marie Treguier ◽  
Bernard Barnier ◽  
Nicolas Ferry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Ocean Reanalysis ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract The authors investigate the variability of salinity in the Arctic Ocean and in the Nordic and Labrador Seas over recent years to see how the freshwater balance in the Arctic and the exchanges with the North Atlantic have been affected by the recent important sea ice melting, especially during the 2007 sea ice extent minimum. The Global Ocean Reanalysis and Simulations (GLORYS1) global ocean reanalysis based on a global coupled ocean–sea ice model with an average of 12-km grid resolution in the Arctic Ocean is used in this regard. Although no sea ice data and no data under sea ice are assimilated, simulation over the 2001–09 period is shown to represent fairly well the 2007 sea ice event and the different components accounting for the ocean and sea ice freshwater budget, compared to available observations. In the reanalysis, the 2007 sea ice minimum is due to an increase of the sea ice export through Fram Strait (25%) and an important sea ice melt in the Arctic (75%). Liquid freshwater is accumulated in the Beaufort gyre after 2002, in agreement with recent observations, and it is shown that this accumulation is due to both the sea ice melt and a spatial redistribution of the freshwater content in the Canadian Basin. In the Eurasian Basin, a very contrasting situation is found with an increase of the salinity. The effect of the sea ice melt is counterbalanced by an increase of the Atlantic inflow and a modification of the circulation north of Fram Strait after 2007. The authors suggest that a strong anomaly of the atmospheric conditions was responsible for this change of the circulation.

scholarly journals A 21 year record of Arctic sea-ice extents and their regional, seasonal and monthly variability and trends

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 441-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire L. Parkinson ◽  
Donald J. Cavalieri
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Monthly Basis ◽  
The North ◽  
Yearly Average ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Polar

AbstractSatellite passive-microwave data have been used to calculate sea-ice extents over the period 1979–99 for the north polar sea-ice cover as a whole and for each of nine regions. Over this 21 year time period, the trend in yearly-average ice extents for the ice cover as a whole is –32 900±6100 km2 a–1 (–2.7 ±0.5% per decade), indicating a statistically significant reduction in sea-ice coverage. Regionally, the reductions are greatest in the Arctic Ocean, the Kara and Barents Seas and the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan; and seasonally, the reductions are greatest in summer, for which season the 1979–99 trend in ice extents is –41600±12 900 km2 a–1 (–4.9±1.5% per decade). On a monthly basis, the reductions are greatest in July and September for the north polar ice cover as a whole, in September for the Arctic Ocean, in June and July for the Kara and Barents Seas, and in April for the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan. Of the nine regions, only the Bering Sea and the Gulf of St Lawrence show positive ice-extent trends on a yearly-average basis. However, the increases in these two regions are not statistically significant. For the north polar region as a whole, and for the Arctic Ocean, the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan, and Hudson Bay, the negative trends in the yearly averages are statistically significant at a 99% confidence level.

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