Interannual variability of the Ocean Circulation in the Atlantic-Arctic Ocean Gateways ...
The northward transport of warm and saline water from the Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic Ocean is a crucial element of the Arctic climate system. On its way north, the Atlantic Water (AW) is either transported through the Barents Sea (BS), a shallow Arctic shelf sea, or with the West Spitsbergen Cur...
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| Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Universität Bremen
2024
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.26092/elib/3037 https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/handle/elib/7999 |
| Summary: | The northward transport of warm and saline water from the Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic Ocean is a crucial element of the Arctic climate system. On its way north, the Atlantic Water (AW) is either transported through the Barents Sea (BS), a shallow Arctic shelf sea, or with the West Spitsbergen Current through eastern Fram Strait (FS). The temperature and volume of the two-branched AW flow depict pronounced interannual variability, affecting the downstream water properties in the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic sea ice. In the first part of my thesis, I examine a potential positive feedback in the ice-ocean-atmosphere system of the BS. Using satellite data, atmospheric reanalysis, and a special setup of a global ocean and sea ice model I test whether the pronounced local decrease in sea ice in the BS can trigger a local feedback. It was hypothesized that reduced sea ice increases ocean-to-atmosphere heat flux, reduces the air pressure, alters the local wind field, and finally increases the warm water transport ... |
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