Fram Strait and Greenland Sea transports, water masses, and water mass transformations 1999–2010 (and beyond)

The exchanges between the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean are important for the ocean circulation and climate. Transports are here estimated using summer hydrographic data from the Greenland Sea and the Fram Strait. Geostrophic transports are computed from hydrographic sections at 75°N in the Greenland Sea and at about 79°N in the Fram Strait. Geostrophic velocities are adjusted with summer velocities derived from Argo floats, and four conservation constraints are applied to a box closed by the two sections. The estimated net volume transports are 0.8 ± 1.5 Sv southward. Net freshwater transports through the Greenland Sea section are estimated at 54 ± 20 mSv and through the Fram Strait section at 66 ± 9 mSv. Heat loss in the area between the two sections is estimated at 9 ± 12 TW. Convection depths in the Greenland Sea are estimated from observations and vary between about 200 and 2000 dbar showing no trend. Water mass properties in the Greenland Sea are affected both by convection and lateral mixing. Vertical mixing is estimated from hydrography and based on it about 1 Sv of diluted Arctic Ocean waters are estimated to enter the Greenland Sea. The properties of Atlantic, intermediate, and deep waters are studied. Deep water properties are defined using water mass triangles and are subject to decadal changes

Evolution of the East Greenland Current from Fram Strait to Denmark Strait : synoptic measurements from summer 2012

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 122 (2017): 1974–1994, doi:10.1002/2016JC012228.We present measurements from two shipboard surveys conducted in summer 2012 that sampled the rim current system around the Nordic Seas from Fram Strait to Denmark Strait. The data reveal that, along a portion of the western boundary of the Nordic Seas, the East Greenland Current (EGC) has three distinct components. In addition to the well-known shelfbreak branch, there is an inshore branch on the continental shelf as well as a separate branch offshore of the shelfbreak. The inner branch contributes significantly to the overall freshwater transport of the rim current system, and the outer branch transports a substantial amount of Atlantic-origin Water equatorward. Supplementing our measurements with historical hydrographic data, we argue that the offshore branch is a direct recirculation of the western branch of the West Spitsbergen Current in Fram Strait. The total transport of the shelfbreak EGC (the only branch sampled consistently in all of the sections) decreased toward Denmark Strait. The estimated average transport of dense overflow water (rh > 27.8 kg/m3 and h>08C) in the shelfbreak EGC was 2.860.7 Sv, consistent with previous moored measurements. For the three sections that crossed the entire EGC system the freshwater flux, relative to a salinity of 34.8, ranged from 127613 to 8168 mSv. The hydrographic data reveal that, between Fram Strait and Denmark Strait, the core of the Atlantic-origin Water in the shelfbreak EGC cools and freshens but changes very little in density.Norwegian Research Council Grant Number: 231647; European Union 7th Framework Grant Number: 308299; National Science Foundation Grant Number: OCE-09593812017-09-1

Variability and redistribution of heat in the Atlantic Water boundary current north of Svalbard

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123 (2018): 6373-6391, doi:10.1029/2018JC013814.We quantify Atlantic Water heat loss north of Svalbard using year‐long hydrographic and current records from three moorings deployed across the Svalbard Branch of the Atlantic Water boundary current in 2012–2013. The boundary current loses annually on average 16 W m−2 during the eastward propagation along the upper continental slope. The largest vertical fluxes of >100 W m−2 occur episodically in autumn and early winter. Episodes of sea ice imported from the north in November 2012 and February 2013 coincided with large ocean‐to‐ice heat fluxes, which effectively melted the ice and sustained open water conditions in the middle of the Arctic winter. Between March and early July 2013, a persistent ice cover‐modulated air‐sea fluxes. Melting sea ice at the start of the winter initiates a cold, up to 100‐m‐deep halocline separating the ice cover from the warm Atlantic Water. Semidiurnal tides dominate the energy over the upper part of the slope. The vertical tidal structure depends on stratification and varies seasonally, with the potential to contribute to vertical fluxes with shear‐driven mixing. Further processes impacting the heat budget include lateral heat loss due to mesoscale eddies, and modest and negligible contributions of Ekman pumping and shelf break upwelling, respectively. The continental slope north of Svalbard is a key example regarding the role of ocean heat for the sea ice cover. Our study underlines the complexity of the ocean's heat budget that is sensitive to the balance between oceanic heat advection, vertical fluxes, air‐sea interaction, and the sea ice cover.Arctic Ocean program at the FRAM-High North Research Centre for Climate and the environment; National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant Number: ARC-1264098; Polish-Norwegian Research Programme Grant Number: POL-NOR/202006/10/2013; Research Council of Norway Grant Number: 276730; Steven Grossman Family Foundatio

Exchange of warming deepwaters across Fram Strait

Current meters measured temperature and velocity on 11 moorings from 1997 to 2014 in Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland at the only deep passage from the Nordic Seas to the Arctic Ocean. The sill depth in Fram Strait is 2545 m. The observed temperatures vary between the colder Greenland Sea Deep Water and the warmer Eurasian Basin Deep Water. Both end members show a linear warming trend of 0.11 0.02 C/decade (GSDW) and 0.05 0.01 C/decade (EBDW) in agreement with the deep water warming observed in the basins to the north and south. At the current warming rates, GSDW and EBDW will reach the same temperature of -0.71 C in 2020. The deep water on the approximately 40 km wide plateau near the sill in Fram Strait is a mixture of the two end members with both contributing similar amounts. This water mass is continuously formed by mixing in Fram Strait and subsequently exported out of Fram Strait. Individual measurements are approximately normally distributed around the average of the two end members. Meridionally, the mixing is confined to the plateau region. Measurements less than 20 km to the north and south have properties much closer to the properties in the respective basins than to the mixed water on the plateau. The temperature distribution around Fram Strait indicates that the mean flow cannot be responsible for the deep water exchange across the sill. Rather, a coherence analysis shows that mesoscale flows with periods of approximately 1–2 weeks advect the water masses across Fram Strait. These flows are barotropically forced by upper ocean mesoscale variability. We conclude that these mesoscale flows make Fram Strait a hot spot of deep water mixing in the Arctic Mediterranean. The fate of the mixed water is not clear, but after the early 1990s, it does not reflect the properties of Norwegian Sea Deep Water. We propose that it currently mostly fills the deep Greenland Sea.Versión del editor2,421

Structure, transport, and seasonality of the Atlantic Water boundary current north of Svalbard: Results from a yearlong mooring array

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 124(3), (2019): 1679-1698, doi:10.1029/2018JC014759.The characteristics and seasonality of the Svalbard branch of the Atlantic Water (AW) boundary current in the Eurasian Basin are investigated using data from a six‐mooring array deployed near 30°E between September 2012 and September 2013. The instrument coverage extended to 1,200‐m depth and approximately 50 km offshore of the shelf break, which laterally bracketed the flow. Averaged over the year, the transport of the current over this depth range was 3.96 ± 0.32 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3/s). The transport within the AW layer was 2.08 ± 0.24 Sv. The current was typically subsurface intensified, and its dominant variability was associated with pulsing rather than meandering. From late summer to early winter the AW was warmest and saltiest, and its eastward transport was strongest (2.44 ± 0.12 Sv), while from midspring to midsummer the AW was coldest and freshest and its transport was weakest (1.10 ± 0.06 Sv). Deep mixed layers developed through the winter, extending to 400‐ to 500‐m depth in early spring until the pack ice encroached the area from the north shutting off the air‐sea buoyancy forcing. This vertical mixing modified a significant portion of the AW layer, suggesting that, as the ice cover continues to decrease in the southern Eurasian Basin, the AW will be more extensively transformed via local ventilation.We are grateful to the crew of the R/V Lance for the collection of the data. The U.S. component of A‐TWAIN was funded by the National Science Foundation under grant ARC‐1264098 as well as a grant from the Steven Grossman Family Foundation. The Norwegian component of A‐TWAIN was funded by the “Arctic Ocean” flagship program at the Fram Centre. The data used in this study are available at http://atwain.whoi.edu and data.npolar.no (Sundfjord et al., 2017). The data from Fram Strait are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.8539022019-08-1

The Arctic Ocean Seasonal Cycles of Heat and Freshwater Fluxes: Observation-Based Inverse Estimates

This paper presents the first estimate of the seasonal cycle of ocean and sea ice heat and freshwater (FW) fluxes around the Arctic Ocean boundary. The ocean transports are estimated primarily using 138 moored instruments deployed in September 2005–August 2006 across the four main Arctic gateways: Davis, Fram, and Bering Straits, and the Barents Sea Opening (BSO). Sea ice transports are estimated from a sea ice assimilation product. Monthly velocity fields are calculated with a box inverse model that enforces mass and salt conservation. The volume transports in the four gateways in the period (annual mean ± 1 standard deviation) are −2.1 ± 0.7 Sv in Davis Strait, −1.1 ± 1.2 Sv in Fram Strait, 2.3 ± 1.2 Sv in the BSO, and 0.7 ± 0.7 Sv in Bering Strait (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1). The resulting ocean and sea ice heat and FW fluxes are 175 ± 48 TW and 204 ± 85 mSv, respectively. These boundary fluxes accurately represent the annual means of the relevant surface fluxes. The ocean heat transport variability derives from velocity variability in the Atlantic Water layer and temperature variability in the upper part of the water column. The ocean FW transport variability is dominated by Bering Strait velocity variability. The net water mass transformation in the Arctic entails a freshening and cooling of inflowing waters by 0.62 ± 0.23 in salinity and 3.74° ± 0.76°C in temperature, respectively, and a reduction in density by 0.23 ± 0.20 kg m−3. The boundary heat and FW fluxes provide a benchmark dataset for the validation of numerical models and atmospheric reanalysis products

A Framework for the Development, Design and Implementation of a Sustained Arctic Ocean Observing System

Rapid Arctic warming drives profound change in the marine environment that have significant socio-economic impacts within the Arctic and beyond, including climate and weather hazards, food security, transportation, infrastructure planning and resource extraction. These concerns drive efforts to understand and predict Arctic environmental change and motivate development of an Arctic Region Component of the Global Ocean Observing System (ARCGOOS) capable of collecting the broad, sustained observations needed to support these endeavors. This paper provides a roadmap for establishing the ARCGOOS. ARCGOOS development must be underpinned by a broadly-endorsed framework grounded in high-level policy drivers and the scientific and operational objectives that stem from them. This should be guided by a transparent, internationally accepted governance structure with recognized authority and organizational relationships with the national agencies that ultimately execute network plans. A governance model for ARCGOOS must guide selection of objectives, assess performance and fitness-to-purpose, and advocate for resources. A requirements-based framework for an ARCGOOS begins with the Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) that underpin the system. SBAs motivate investments and define the system's science and operational objectives. Objectives can then be used to identify key observables and their scope. The domains of planning/policy, strategy, and tactics define scope ranging from decades and basins to focused observing with near real time data delivery. Patterns emerge when this analysis is integrated across an appropriate set of SBAs and science/operational objectives, identifying impactful variables and the scope of the measurements. When weighted for technological readiness and logistical feasibility, this can be used to select Essential ARCGOOS Variables, analogous to Essential Ocean Variables of the Global Ocean Observing System. The Arctic presents distinct needs and challenges, demanding novel observing strategies. Cost, traceability and ability to integrate region-specific knowledge have to be balanced, in an approach that builds on existing and new observing infrastructure. ARCGOOS should benefit from established data infrastructures following the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reuseable Principles to ensure preservation and sharing of data and derived products. Linking to the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) process and involving Arctic stakeholders, for example through liaison with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), can help ensure success