Dynamical reconstruction of the upper-ocean state in the Central Arctic during the winter period of the MOSAiC Expedition

• Main Authors: Kuznetsov, Ivan, Rabe, Benjamin, Androsov, Alexey, Fang, Ying-Chih, Hoppmann, Mario, Quintanilla-Zurita, Alejandra, Harig, Sven, Tippenhauer, Sandra, Schulz, Kirstin, Mohrholz, Volker, Fer, Ilker, Fofonova, Vera, Janout, Markus
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; ice pack; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1353; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00067471; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00065928/egusphere-2023-1353.pdf; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-1353/egusphere-2023-1353.pdf

The Arctic Ocean is a region important for global and regional climate. Although generally quiescent compared to mid-latitudes, the upper Arctic ocean hosts mesoscale and smaller scale processes. These processes can have a profound impact on vertical ocean fluxes, stratification, and feedback with the sea ice and atmosphere. Sparse and non-synoptic in-situ observations of the polar oceans are limited by the distribution of manual observing platforms and autonomous instrumentation. Analyzing observational data to assess tracer field gradients and upper ocean dynamics becomes highly challenging when measurement platforms drift with the ice pack due to continuous changes in drift speed direction. This work presents a dynamical reconstruction of the ocean state, based on observations of the Multidisciplinary Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) experiment. Overall, the model can reproduce the lateral and vertical structure of the temperature, salinity, and density fields, which allows for projecting dynamically consistent features of these fields onto a regular grid. We identify two separate depth ranges of enhanced eddy kinetic energy, which are located around two maxima in buoyancy frequency: the depth of the upper halocline and the depth of the warm (modified) Atlantic Water. Simulations reveal a notable decrease in surface layer salinity and density towards the north, accompanied by high variability in the mixed layer depth in the south-north direction. And no significant horizontal gradients in salinity and density fields but an increase in mixed layer depth from west to east 0.084 m/km gradient with 0.6 m/km standard deviation, indicating opposite characteristics compared to the south-north direction. The model resolves several stationary eddies in the warm Atlantic Water and provides insights into the associated dynamics. The obtained three-dimensional fields of temperature and salinity can be used for further analysis of the thermohaline structure and related dynamics associated with ...