Arctic warming through the Fram Strait - Oceanic heat transport from three years of measurements

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research
• Main Authors: Schauer, Ursula, Fahrbach, Eberhard, Osterhus, S., Rohardt, Gerd
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; East Greenland; east greenland current; Fram Strait; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/8133/; https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JC001823; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.18670

We present estimates of volume and heat transport through Fram Strait for the period 1997 to 2000 from data of moored instruments. Full depth volume transports at 78° 55'N were in the order of 10 Sv both northwards and southwards with an annual mean net transport between 2 and 4 Sv to the south. The temperature of the northward flow of Atlantic Water had a strong seasonality with a minimum in winter. Nevertheless, the northward heat transport was highest in winter caused by the winter maximum of northward volume transport. During the three years of observation, the heat transport in the West Spitsbergen Current increased from 28 to 46 TW as a result of both increased speed and temperature. In contrast to the West Spitsbergen Current, the volume and heat transport of East Greenland Current remained fairly constant. An integration over a subsection of the East Greenland Current showed similar values of volume transport to that obtained by measurements in the 1980s (Foldvik et al., 1988). The southward heat transport through modified Atlantic Water weakened slightly between 1997 and 1999 despite increased temperatures.