"Computers are now powerful enough to run multi-decadal global simulations at high resolution," said Dr Aksenov: "This helps to understand how the ocean is changing and to plan observational programmes so as to make measurements at sea more efficient."
The researchers find that between 1989 and 2009, about half of the salty North Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean came through Fram Strait, and half through the Barents Sea, north of Norway and Russia. However, most of the heat entered the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait.
Based on their simulations and available observations, they propose a new scheme for the inflow of North Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean, involving three main routes.
The first delivers warm saline water to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait. The other two bring cooled and freshened North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean via the Barents Sea.
A northern branch delivers water from the western Barents Sea, mixed to some extent with the Fram Strait branch. Here, North Atlantic water interacts with Arctic waters, resulting in fresh, cold water overlying saltier water below the mixed layer at a depth of around 50-170 metres.
The southern branch supplies the Arctic Ocean with warmer and more saline bottom water formed in the southeastern Barents Sea via full-depth convection and mixing.
Both the northern and southern branches of the Barents Sea flow deliver North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean via the 620 metre deep St Anna's Trough, located east of the Franz Josef archipelago in the far north of Russia. Together they transport around one and a half million cubic metres of water a second.
"Our research is leading to a physically based picture, our eventual goal being a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms driving ocean climate change," said Dr Aksenov.
The research was supported by the RAPID Climate Change Programme and Arctic Synoptic Basin-wide Oceanography Consortium, Natural Environment Research Council, UK.
The researchers are Yevgeny Aksenov, Sheldon Bacon, Andrew Coward and George Nurser (all of NOCS).
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Adapted from materials provided by National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK).
Journal Reference:
1. Aksenov et al. The North Atlantic inflow to the Arctic Ocean: High-resolution model study. Journal of Marine Systems, 2010; 79 (1-2): 1 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2009.05.003
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National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK) (2009, December 13). Understanding ocean climate. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 26, 2009, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/12/091210101410.htm