Spitsbergen Oceanic and Atmospheric interactions

• Main Authors: Bensi, Manuel, Kovačević, Vedrana, Langone, Leonardo, Miserocchi, Stefano, Demarte, Maurizio, Ivaldi, Roberta
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System 2020
• Subjects: deep sea thermohaline variability; along slope currents; shelf-slope dynamics; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Svalbard; Svalbard Archipelago; Fram Strait; Sea ice; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/4777750; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4777750

This is chapter 11 of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report 2019 (https://sios-svalbard.org/SESS_Issue2). Off the Svalbard archipelago, in the eastern Fram Strait, at 1000 m depth along the continental slope, we observed temperature and salinity fluctuations that were more prominent between October and April. Data were acquired employing an oceanographic mooring deployed at 76°N 013°E from June 2014. Since then, the most noteworthy episode lasted more than 15 days in December 2016/January 2017 when the temperature rose from the typical value of -0.9°C to over 2°C. At the same time, bottom currents increased significantly, to 85 cm/s. Normally, these bottom currents flow around 10-15 cm/s. This region is characterized by the passage of Atlantic Water flowing northward in the upper layer, bringing relatively warm water to the Arctic Ocean. Below 800 m depth, the Norwegian Deep Sea Water, colder and less salty, also flows northward. Thanks to the scientific community that carries out measurements both in the ocean and in the atmosphere, we know that the Arctic is progressively warming up; we see this in the gradual melting of sea ice and ice on land. However, it is not clear how much of this warming is caused by human activities and what consequence it will have. In order to record and to study environmental changes and anomalies, we need time series. To provide robust climate data, such series must span decades. Achieving this goal requires great effort in terms of international collaborations, both economic and scientific.