Publication Date:
2014-01-18
Description:
Freshwater in the Arctic Ocean plays an important role in the regional ocean circulation, sea ice and global climate. From salinity observed by a variety of platforms we are able, for the first time, to estimate a statistically reliable liquid freshwater trend from monthly gridded fields over all upper Arctic Ocean basins. From 1992 to 2012 this trend was 600 ± 300 km 3 yr − 1 . A numerical model agrees very well with the observed freshwater changes. A decrease in salinity made up about 2/3 of the freshwater trend and a thickening of the upper layer 1/3. The Arctic Ocean Oscillation index, a measure for the regional wind stress curl, correlated well with our freshwater timeseries. No clear relation to Arctic Oscillation or Arctic Dipole indices could be found. Following other observational studies, an increased Bering Strait freshwater import to the Arctic Ocean, a decreased Davis Strait export and enhanced net sea ice melt could have played an important role in the freshwater trend we observed.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
Permalink
