Contribution of a pathway through the Arctic Ocean to the recent reduction in the ice cover

• Main Author: Ikeda, Motoyoshi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2008
• Subjects: Oceans; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Bering Sea; Bering Strait; Greenland; Pacific; Advances in Polar Science; Arctic Basin; Greenland Sea; Polar Science; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2361/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2361/1/A200802011.pdf

The sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean has been reducing and hit the low record in the summer of 2007. The anomaly was extremely large in the Pacific sector. The sea level height in the Bering Sea vs. the Greenland Sea has been analyzed and compared with the current meter data through the Bering Strait. A recent peak existed as a consequence of atmospheric circulation and is considered to contribute to inflow of the Pacific Water into the Arctic Basin. The timing of the Pacific Water inflow matched with the sea ice reduction in the Pacific sector and suggests a significant increase in heat flux. This component should be included in the model prediction for answering the question when the Arctic sea ice becomes a seasonal ice cover.