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New evidence of warming propagating toward the Arctic Ocean
Author(s) -
Walczowski Waldemar,
Piechura Jan
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl025872
Subject(s) - arctic , the arctic , climatology , environmental science , oceanography , mooring , arctic dipole anomaly , climate change , arctic ice pack , geology , drift ice
The dramatic changes in the Arctic climate observed in recent years have generated an urgent need to investigate the Arctic Ocean's heat budget. Mooring data and synoptic observations in the Fram Strait (FS) region have shown that increasing amounts of heat have been transported into the Arctic Ocean (AO) in recent times. Here we present results from observations conducted in the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) in summers 2000–2005. The study was motivated by the strong warm anomalies seen in the Atlantic Water (AW) layer over a large area of the WSC, and changes in the WSC structure. We conclude that the warm signal was only approaching the FS, and we expect that high heat transport through the strait will continue and be even higher than during the last 6 years, mostly due to increasing activity and temperature of the western branch of WSC.