| Summary: | The evolving knowledge of the Arctic Ocean, its hydrography and its water masses and their transformations and circulation is reviewed starting with the observations made on Fram 1893–1896 and extending to the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–2009. The expeditions and observations after Fram to the mid 20th century as well as the more extensive and systematic studies of water masses and circulation made from ice stations and airborne expeditions from the late 1940s to the late 1970s are briefly described. The early concepts of the connections and exchanges between the Arctic Ocean and the world ocean are also discussed. In the 1980s scientific icebreakers were beginning to enter the inner parts of the Arctic Ocean and large international programmes were launched, culminating in the IPY. The changes in the Arctic Ocean, first noted in the Atlantic layer in 1990 and shortly after in the upper layers, are described. The exchanges between the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding seas through the four main openings, Fram Strait, Barents Sea, Bering Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as well the volume and freshwater balances of the Arctic Ocean are examined.
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