The role of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in the Arctic freshwater cycle.

The freshwater outflow (liquid and sea ice) from the Arctic Ocean into the North Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is an important component of the Arctic freshwater cycle. Changes in the freshwater export of the CAA could affect the deep water formation, which has great impact...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wekerle, Claudia, Wang, Qiang, Harig, Sven, Danilov, Sergey, Schröter, Jens, Jung, Thomas
Format: Conference Object
Language:unknown
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Arctic Archipelago
North Atlantic
Sea ice
Online Access:https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/25054/
https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.38339
Description
Summary:The freshwater outflow (liquid and sea ice) from the Arctic Ocean into the North Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is an important component of the Arctic freshwater cycle. Changes in the freshwater export of the CAA could affect the deep water formation, which has great impact on the Meridional Overturning Circulation. The CAA is characterized by narrow straits and complex coastlines. Traditional ocean models e.g. using the finite difference method have difficulties to capture these features accurately. Using unstructured meshes allows for resolving the region properly. We exploit the Finite Element Sea ice Ocean Model (FESOM) in a global configuration to study the ocean and sea ice conditions in the CAA region. Model runs integrated for 50 years with and without resolving the CAA are compared, with a local refinement up to 5 km in the high resolution case. Model results are validated against observational data and previous model results.

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