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

• 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

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.