P a p e r s SURFACE WATER IN THE EURASIAN BASIN OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN*

• Main Authors: L. K. Coachman, C. A. Barnes
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: water basins; the Canadian and the Eurasian; as shown in Fig. l a (LaFond; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Lafond
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.528.9973; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic15-4-251.pdf

T HE Arctic Ocean can be separated, on the basis of temperature and salinity characteristics of the water, into a three-layered system. This layered nature of the water in the Arctic Ocean was first observed by Nansen (1902) who, ,during the drift of the Fram, noted that the top layer of the sea, between 0 and 200 metres consisted of water of low salinity and low tempera-ture; this layer was termed by him “genuine polar water”. From 250 m. to the bottom the sea was filled with water of very high salinity and relatively high temperature, which evidently originated in the Atlantic Ocean and was slightly modified on the way to the Arctic Ocean. The temperature of the deeper water was above 0°C. down to about 900 m. and less than 0°C. below 900 m. but not so cold as the upper polar water. Studies have been conducted since the expedition on the Fram with ever increasing intensity. These studies have not altered the basic concept of the physical oceanography of the Arctic Ocean as elucidated by Nansen, but they have added much detail. The considerable amounts of station data that have been accumulated over many years, and during all seasons of the