Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation
The Arctic Ocean receives a net freshwater input from land and from the atmosphere. This flux of freshwater, along with net surface heat loss, acts to transform the water mass properties of inflowing Atlantic and Pacific waters. In this study, model simulations are used to quantify the Arctic water...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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2019
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1956/19041 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 |
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ftunivbergen:oai:bora.uib.no:1956/19041 2023-05-15T14:34:29+02:00 Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation Lambert, Erwin Nummelin, Aleksi Pemberton, Per Ilicak, Mehmet 2019-01-14 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1956/19041 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 eng eng American Geophysical Union On freshwater and the density-driven circulation in the northern seas urn:issn:2169-9275 https://hdl.handle.net/1956/19041 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Copyright 2018 the authors Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124 1 302-319 Peer reviewed Journal article 2019 ftunivbergen https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 2023-03-14T17:43:53Z The Arctic Ocean receives a net freshwater input from land and from the atmosphere. This flux of freshwater, along with net surface heat loss, acts to transform the water mass properties of inflowing Atlantic and Pacific waters. In this study, model simulations are used to quantify the Arctic water mass transformation in salinity and temperature space, and its explained variance due to variability in the largest freshwater source to the Arctic: river runoff. This explained variance is quantified using a novel tool, the seasonal climate response function, which describes the magnitude and time scale of adjustment to a runoff perturbation at monthly resolution. Using this method, the transient response of Arctic water mass transformation is reconstructed over time scales ranging from several months to a decade. Model simulations with variable runoff indicate a significant explained model variance of several terms contributing to salinity transformation, including diffusion, the formation and melt of sea ice, and a possibly model-dependent surface salinity-restoring term. Most notably, an increase in river runoff strengthens the diffusion of salt and heat, which ultimately leads to an increase in the advective salt and heat import into the Arctic. These results provide evidence for the potential predictability of the Arctic system based on variability in river runoff. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124 1 302 319 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) |
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ftunivbergen |
language |
English |
description |
The Arctic Ocean receives a net freshwater input from land and from the atmosphere. This flux of freshwater, along with net surface heat loss, acts to transform the water mass properties of inflowing Atlantic and Pacific waters. In this study, model simulations are used to quantify the Arctic water mass transformation in salinity and temperature space, and its explained variance due to variability in the largest freshwater source to the Arctic: river runoff. This explained variance is quantified using a novel tool, the seasonal climate response function, which describes the magnitude and time scale of adjustment to a runoff perturbation at monthly resolution. Using this method, the transient response of Arctic water mass transformation is reconstructed over time scales ranging from several months to a decade. Model simulations with variable runoff indicate a significant explained model variance of several terms contributing to salinity transformation, including diffusion, the formation and melt of sea ice, and a possibly model-dependent surface salinity-restoring term. Most notably, an increase in river runoff strengthens the diffusion of salt and heat, which ultimately leads to an increase in the advective salt and heat import into the Arctic. These results provide evidence for the potential predictability of the Arctic system based on variability in river runoff. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lambert, Erwin Nummelin, Aleksi Pemberton, Per Ilicak, Mehmet |
spellingShingle |
Lambert, Erwin Nummelin, Aleksi Pemberton, Per Ilicak, Mehmet Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation |
author_facet |
Lambert, Erwin Nummelin, Aleksi Pemberton, Per Ilicak, Mehmet |
author_sort |
Lambert, Erwin |
title |
Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation |
title_short |
Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation |
title_full |
Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation |
title_fullStr |
Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Tracing the Imprint of River Runoff Variability on Arctic Water Mass Transformation |
title_sort |
tracing the imprint of river runoff variability on arctic water mass transformation |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1956/19041 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice |
op_source |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124 1 302-319 |
op_relation |
On freshwater and the density-driven circulation in the northern seas urn:issn:2169-9275 https://hdl.handle.net/1956/19041 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Copyright 2018 the authors |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2017jc013704 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
124 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
302 |
op_container_end_page |
319 |
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1766307506471043072 |