Observational Program Tracks Arctic Ocean Transition to a Warmer State

• Published in: Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
• Main Authors: Polyakov, Igor V., Timokhov, Leonid A., Dmitrenko, Igor A., Ivanov, Vladimir V., Simmons, Harper L., Beszczynska-Möller, Agnieszka, Dickson, Robert, Fahrbach, Eberhard, Fortier, Louis, Gascard, Jean-Claude, Hölemann, Jens, Holliday, Naomi Penny, Hansen, Edmond, Mauritzen, Cecilie, Piechura, Jan, Pickart, Robert S., Schauer, Ursula, Steele, Michael, Walczowski, Waldemar
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOC), University of Southampton
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: 9315); Oceanography: General: Arctic and Antarctic oceanography (9310; Global Change: Regional climate change; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Arctic; Antarctic; Arctic Ocean; Antarc*; Climate change
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00770686; https://doi.org/10.1029/2007EO400002

International audience Over the past several decades, the Arctic Ocean has undergone substantial change. Enhanced transport of warmer air from lower latitudes has led to increased Arctic surface air temperature. Concurrent reductions in Arctic ice extent and thickness have been documented. The first evidence of warming in the intermediate Atlantic Water (AW, water depth between 150 and 900 meters) of the Arctic Ocean was found in 1990. Another anomaly, found in 2004, suggests that the Arctic Ocean is in transition toward a new, warmer state [Polyakov et al., 2005, and references therein].