Assesment of Remotely Sensed Ocean Currents Products in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea

• Main Authors: Gutiérrez-García, Marina, Umbert, Marta, Gómez, I., De Andrés, Eva, Isern-Fontanet, Jordi, Gabarró, Carolina
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; Surface Current; Beaufort Gyre; Remote Sensing; Polar Oceanography; Arctic; Armitage; Chukchi Sea; Las Palmas; Chukchi; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/304060

VII Encuentro de Oceanografía Física (EOF) - Expanding Ocean Frontiers Conference, VIII International Symposium on Marine Sciences, 6-8 July 2022, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España Melting of glaciers, loss of sea ice, and acceleration of hydrological cycle have an impact on the Arctic Ocean. When ice melts, large amounts of freshwater are released into the ocean, causing the sea level to rise and the salinity to vary. Changes in salinity and temperature modify seawater density, directly affecting ocean currents. Freshwater in the Arctic Ocean is not uniformly distributed; it accumulates primarily in the Canadian basin, especially in the Beaufort Gyre, the Arctic Ocean's largest freshwater reservoir. We intercompare three operational surface current products: Globcurrent (Rio et al., 2014), OSCAR (Bonjean and Lagerloef, 2002), and CPOM (Armitage et al., 2016). The first results highlight the differences in data coverage and the scales that are being resolved. Globcurrent and OSCAR have less data coverage and higher spatial and temporal resolution than the CPOM product. The higher data coverage observed in CPOM, attends to its simplicity, since it solves the geostrophic currents beneath the sea ice. However, CPOM is a smoother product that resolves lower spatio-temporal scales. Monthly mean currents are calculated between 2010 and 2020 along the Beaufort Gyre and the temporal evolution within this period is then analyzed. The surface current intensity within the Beaufort Gyre is found to increase during this period, with tendencies of 1.6*10-6m·s-1, which is consistent with findings of Proshutinsky et al. (2015) and Armitage et al (2017). The Beaufort gyre's intensification is linked to an anticyclonic wind pattern and a freshwater increase in the area. Both the acceleration and the accumulation of freshwater, have a significant impact on stratification and on the sea ice formation. Our results are an example of how remote sensing helps on the monitoring of the changing dynamics of the Arctic Ocean and to ...