The Arctic Ocean seasonal cycles of heat and freshwater fluxes: observation-based inverse estimates

• Main Authors: Tsubouchi, Takamasa, Bacon, Sheldon, Aksenov, Yevgeny, Garabato, Alberto C. Naveira, Beszczynska-Möller, Agnieszka, Hansen, Edmond, de Steur, Laura, Curry, Beth, Lee, Craig M.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2017
• Subjects: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph; FOS Physical sciences; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Barents Sea; Bering Strait; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1711.10880; https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.10880

This paper presents the first estimate of the seasonal cycle of ocean and sea ice net heat and freshwater (FW) fluxes around the boundary of the Arctic Ocean. The ocean transports are estimated primarily using 138 moored instruments deployed in September 2005 to August 2006 across the four main Arctic gateways: Davis, Fram and Bering Straits, and the Barents Sea Opening (BSO). Sea ice transports are estimated from a sea ice assimilation product. Monthly velocity fields are calculated with a box inverse model that enforces volume and salinity conservation. The resulting net ocean and sea ice heat and FW fluxes (annual mean $\pm$ 1 standard deviation) are 175 $\pm$48 TW and 204 $\pm$85 mSv (respectively; 1 Sv = 10$^{6} m^{3} s^{-1}$). These boundary fluxes accurately represent the annual means of the relevant surface fluxes. Oceanic net heat transport variability is driven by temperature variability in upper part of the water column and by volume transport variability in the Atlantic Water layer. Oceanic net FW transport variability is dominated by Bering Strait velocity variability. The net water mass transformation in the Arctic entails a freshening and cooling of inflowing waters by 0.62$\pm$0.23 in salinity and 3.74$\pm$0.76C in temperature, respectively, and a reduction in density by 0.23$\pm$0.20 kg m$^{-3}$. The volume transport into the Arctic of waters associated with this water mass transformation is 11.3$\pm$1.2 Sv, and the export is -11.4$\pm$1.1 Sv. The boundary heat and FW fluxes provide a benchmark data set for the validation of numerical models and atmospheric re-analyses products. : 64 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, 24 pages supporting information. This manuscript is submitted to Journal of Physical Oceanography on November 2017 for a publication. Copyright in this work may be transferred to American Meteorological Society without further notice