Liquid export of Arctic freshwater components through the Fram Strait 1998–2011

• Published in: Ocean Science
• Main Authors: G. Kattner, A. Beszczynska-Möller, A. Mackensen, U. Schauer, E. Hansen, E. Falck, P. A. Dodd, B. Rabe, E. J. Rohling, K. Cox
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2013
• Subjects: Geography. Anthropology. Recreation; G; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; Pacific; East Greenland; east greenland current; Fram Strait; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/os-9-91-2013; https://doaj.org/article/89c60dbb78754617856f8d7bbe51cce5

We estimated the magnitude and composition of southward liquid freshwater transports in the East Greenland Current near 79° N in the Western Fram Strait between 1998 and 2011. Previous studies have found this region to be an important pathway for liquid freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean to the Nordic Seas and the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. Our transport estimates are based on six hydrographic surveys between June and September and concurrent data from moored current meters. We combined concentrations of liquid freshwater, meteoric water (river water and precipitation), sea ice melt and brine from sea ice formation, and Pacific Water, presented in Dodd et al. (2012), with volume transport estimates from an inverse model. The average of the monthly snapshots of southward liquid freshwater transports between 10.6° W and 4° E is 100 ± 23 mSv (3160 ± 730 km 3 yr −1 ), relative to a salinity of 34.9. This liquid freshwater transport consists of about 130% water from rivers and precipitation (meteoric water), 30% freshwater from the Pacific, and −60% (freshwater deficit) due to a mixture of sea ice melt and brine from sea ice formation. Pacific Water transports showed the highest variation in time, effectively vanishing in some of the surveys. Comparison of our results to the literature indicates that this was due to atmospherically driven variability in the advection of Pacific Water along different pathways through the Arctic Ocean. Variations in most liquid freshwater component transports appear to have been most strongly influenced by changes in the advection of these water masses to the Fram Strait. However, the local dynamics represented by the volume transports influenced the liquid freshwater component transports in individual years, in particular those of sea ice melt and brine from sea ice formation. Our results show a similar ratio of the transports of meteoric water and net sea ice melt as previous studies. However, we observed a significant increase in this ratio between the surveys in 1998 and in ...