Search

International audience; With the Arctic rapidly changing, the needs to observe, understand, and model the changes are essential. To support these needs, an annual cycle of observations of atmospheric properties, processes, and interactions were made while drifting with the sea ice across the central Arctic during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition from October 2019 to September 2020. An international team designed and implemented the comprehensive program to document and characterize all aspects of the Arctic atmospheric system in unprecedented detail, using a variety of approaches, and across multiple scales. These measurements were coordinated with other observational teams to explore cross-cutting and coupled interactions with the Arctic Ocean, sea ice, and ecosystem through a variety of physical and biogeochemical processes. This overview outlines the breadth and complexity of the atmospheric research program, which was organized into 4 subgroups: atmospheric state, clouds and precipitation, gases and aerosols, and energy budgets. Atmospheric variability over the annual cycle revealed important influences from a persistent large-scale winter circulation pattern, leading to some storms with pressure and winds that were outside the interquartile range of past conditions suggested by long-term reanalysis. Similarly, the MOSAiC location was warmer and wetter in summer than the reanalysis climatology, in part due to its close proximity to the sea ice edge. The comprehensiveness of the observational program for characterizing and analyzing atmospheric phenomena is demonstrated via a winter case study examining air mass transitions and a summer case study examining vertical atmospheric evolution. Overall, the MOSAiC atmospheric program successfully met its objectives and was the most comprehensive atmospheric measurement program to date conducted over the Arctic sea ice. The obtained data will support a broad range of coupled-system scientific research and provide an important foundation for advancing multiscale modeling capabilities in the Arctic.

Stable water isotopes are employed as hydrological tracers to quantify the diverse implications of atmospheric moisture for climate. They are widely used as proxies for studying past climate changes, e.g., in isotope records from ice cores and speleothems. Here, we present a new isotopic dataset of both near-surface vapour and ocean surface water from the North Pole to Antarctica, continuously measured from a research vessel throughout the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans during a period of two years. Our observations contribute to a better understanding and modelling of water isotopic composition. The observations reveal that the vapour deuterium excess within the atmospheric boundary layer is not modulated by wind speed, contrary to the commonly used theory, but controlled by relative humidity and sea surface temperature only. In sea ice covered regions, the sublimation of deposited snow on sea ice is a key process controlling the local water vapour isotopic composition., Water isotope modelling is an important tool in climate reconstructions, but there remain gaps in our understanding of the effects upon oxygen and hydrogen isotope fractionation, and thus the source of the deposited signal. Here, the authors present a dataset assembled over two years that shows deuterium excess is controlled by humidity and sea surface temperature, and oxygen and hydrogen isotopes as well as deuterium excess are controlled by sublimation of snow in sea-ice regions.

In recent decades the decline of the Arctic sea ice has modified vertical momentum fluxes from the atmosphere to the ice and the ocean, thereby affecting the surface circulation. In the past ten years satellite altimetry has contributed to understand these changes. However, data from ice-covered regions require dedicated processing, originating inconsistency between ice-covered and open ocean regions in terms of biases, corrections and data coverage. Thus, efforts to generate consistent Arctic-wide datasets are still required to enable the study of the Arctic Ocean surface circulation at basin-wide scales. Here we provide and assess a monthly gridded dataset of sea surface height anomaly and geostrophic velocity. This dataset is based on Cryosat-2 observations over ice-covered and open ocean areas of the Arctic up to 88° N for the period 2011 to 2018, interpolated using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) method. Geostrophic velocity was not available north of 82° N before this study. To examine the robustness of our results, we compare the generated fields to one independent altimetry dataset and independent data of ocean bottom pressure, steric height and near-surface ocean velocity from moorings. Results from the comparison to near-surface ocean velocity show that our geostrophic velocity fields can resolve seasonal to interannual variability of boundary currents wider than about 50 km. We further discuss the seasonal cycle of sea surface height and geostrophic velocity in the context of previous literature. Large scale features emerge, i.e. Arctic-wide maximum sea surface height between October and January, with the highest amplitude over the shelves, and basin wide seasonal acceleration of Arctic slope currents in winter. We suggest that this dataset can be used to study not only the large scale sea surface height and circulation but also the regionally confined boundary currents. The dataset is available in netCDF format from PANGAEA at [data currently under review].

The Arctic Ocean receives a large loading of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from its catchment and shelf sediments, which can be traced across much of the basin. This signature can be used as a tra...

The dynamics of the boundary layer of the ocean significantly affect the interaction between ocean and atmosphere and, as a result, global climate. The sub-ice boundary layer of the ocean and its dynamics have not been thoroughly studied because of the extremely difficult conditions for observation, in particular during winter. Current understanding of spatial-temporal variability of (sub)mesoscales of the upper Arctic Ocean is extremely limited.At the same time, one of the most important features of the upper ocean layers are the small-scale processes that influence and possibly determine the vertical and horizontal transport of heat, salt, and biologically relevant substances. As a consequence, mathematical models, in particular climate models, experience serious difficulties in parameterization of processes not resolved by the models because of the lack sufficient knowledge to detail the spatial variability at the (sub-)mesoscale.To a better characterization and understanding of (sub)mesoscale dynamics and its role in vertical transport of energy and mass we apply a 3D regional ocean model FESOM-C. The observed vertical hydrological structure and a corresponding reconstructed horizontal temperature and salinity fields were imposed as a part of the forcing for the numerical model. These fields and information about the vertical hydrological structure were utilized by the model as initial conditions and for constraining (nudging) during the spin-up period. After the initial spin-up period, once the model had adjusted to our initial conditions, we performed several free runs.We expect that our 3D numerical studies of eddy properties will contribute to a better characterisation and understanding of (sub)mesoscale dynamics in the Arctic Ocean and its role in the vertical transport of energy and mass.

The Arctic Ocean is a region with unique physical processes coupling the atmosphere, sea-ice and ocean. Biogeochemical and ecosystem processes feedback with this physical system not only on a regional scale but also locally around each ice floe. Capturing these processes, both vertically and horizontally from the mesoscale to turbulence scales is essential to understand the Arctic system and to improve model simulations of this region and global climate. The MOSAiC Distributed Network (DN) of autonomous, ice-tethered measurement systems recorded a full seasonal cycle of atmospheric, surface, sea ice and snow, and oceanic conditions. Physical and biological variables were measured throughout the whole drift of the original MOSAiC ice floe with the icebreaker Polarstern (Central Observatory, CO) from north of Laptev Sea to Fram Strait, covering the seasons from mid-autumn 2019 to mid-summer 2020. In addition, a subset of ice-tethered buoys observed the freeze-up in the central Arctic around the second CO, after the relocation of the ice camp in late summer 2020, and even beyond the drift of Polarstern. These observations form a variety of three-dimensional datasets valuable for analyses across the spectrum of research foci covered by MOSAiC. We will present the scientific concept of the DN in the context of other MOSAiC observations, and show the success and preliminary scientific results from a whole year of autonomous observations.

The Arctic Ocean, although remote to most of us, is linked to lower latitudes by way of climate, physics, biology and biogeochemistry. Strongly coupled to the rapidly changing Arctic atmosphere and sea-ice, the ocean is subject to amplification of change amid global trends in climate. The relatively fresh and cold upper mixed-layer in the Arctic basin exhibits a strong seasonal cycle, yet the deeper warm water of Atlantic origin largely stays isolated from the ice. Further, changes in heat, salt and momentum due to exchange with ice and atmosphere cannot penetrate to great depth due to a strong halocline. Nevertheless, we observed changes in the upper water column stratification and mixing, due to storms and freeze-induced brine release during the year-long MOSAiC experiment. This was further expressed by significant variability in (sub)mesoscale processes, including eddies and frontal adjustment. We will present results from ocean observations during the MOSAiC drift using a variety of manually-operated devices and autonomous platforms within several 10s of kilometres from the drifting icebreaker Polarstern. Preliminary analyses of our data highlight a pronounced seasonal cycle in mixed-layer depth and upper ocean stratification characteristics connected to brine release, turbulent events triggered by storms, and geographic background variability. We will further detail the observed full-depth water mass distribution and attempt to untangle temporal and spatial variability. Finally, we will give an overview of Team-OCEAN analyses and interdisciplinary projects.

We analyzed hydrographic data from several autonomous oceanographic buoys within the MOSAiC Distributed Network together with regular CTD casts from the MOSAiC Central Observatory during the 2019/20 winter in the Amundsen Basin. These drifting platforms can yield as small as ~300 m (or 10 min) horizontal resolution, providing unprecedented perspectives for the (sub)mesoscale dynamics. Full-depth CTD profiles yielded the first baroclinic Rossby radii (R1) of ~7.5 km, which is consistent with previous studies based on climatology. Near-surface layers shallower than the halocline were not always mixed. Restratification was commonly observed, suggesting the onset of baroclinic instabilities and/or eddies emanating from the lateral fronts. A surface-layer eddy with estimated radius of ~5 km was fortuitously observed and coincident with the surrounding mixed geostrophic shear in the vertical, that is, oppositely-sloping isopycnals within the depth range of ~20 – 200 m. This structure is reminiscent of the Charney-type baroclinic instability, resulting from a difference in the sign of the vertical gradient of the interior quasigeostrophic potential vorticity and that of the surface buoyancy forcing. A reconstructed surface dynamic height field supports this argument, showing that submesoscale to mesoscale surface lateral buoyancy gradients are ubiquitous. This result implies that the study domain could be inherently unstable and prone to generate baroclinic eddies. We also observed that the slopes of the density horizontal wavenumber spectra changed at the halocline depths (~40 – 75 m) after a ~3-day storm event with peak speeds ~ 20 m s-1. We hypothesize that such change could be related to the Ekman pumping due to large ice drift (~50 cm s-1) and its resultant stress curl during the storm. Our analyses underline that thinning Arctic sea ice and increasing ice drift could together trigger more oceanic heat flux into the cold halocline by storms, further deteriorating winter ice growth in the Amundsen Basin.

In recent decades, the retreat of the Arctic sea ice has modified vertical momentum fluxes from the atmosphere to the ice and the ocean, in turn affecting the surface circulation. Satellite altimetry has contributed in the past ten years to understand these changes. Most oceanographic datasets are however to date limited either to open ocean and ice-covered regions, given that different techniques are required to track sea surface height over these two surfaces. Hence, efforts to generate unified Arctic-wide datasets are still required to further basin-wide studies of the Arctic Ocean surface circulation.We present here the assessment of a new Arctic-wide gridded dataset of the Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) and SLA-derived geostrophic velocities. This dataset is based on Cryosat-2 observations over ice-covered and open ocean areas in the Arctic during 2011 to 2018.We compare the SLA and geostrophic currents derived hereof to in situ observations of ocean bottom pressure, steric height and near-surface ocean velocity, in three regions: the Fram Strait, the shelf break north of the Arctic Cape and the Laptev Sea continental slope. Good agreement in SLA is shown at seasonal time scales, with the dominant component of SLA variability being steric height both in Fram Strait and at the Arctic Cape. On the other hand, ocean bottom pressure dominates SLA changes at the Laptev Sea site. The comparison of velocity at two mooring transects, one in Fram Strait and the other at the Laptev Sea continental slope, reveals that the correlation is highest at the moorings closest to the shelf break, where currents are faster and the seasonal cycle is enhanced.The seasonal cycle of SLA and geostrophic currents as derived from the altimetric product is in favourable agreement with previous results. A quasi-simultaneous occurrence of the SLA maximum happens between October and January; similar phase has been found in steric height seasonal cycle by studies using hydrographic profiles in several regions of the Arctic Ocean. We thereby find the highest SLA amplitude over the shelves, which other studies point to be possibly related to winter-enhanced shoreward water mass transport. Seasonal variability in the geostrophic currents is most pronounced along the shelf edges, representing a basin wide, coherent seasonal acceleration of the Arctic slope currents in winter and a deceleration in summer. This is consistent with the shelf-amplified SLA seasonal cycle described above. Density driven coastal currents near Alaska and Siberia have variable cycle, consistent with the cycle of river runoff and local wind forcing. Enhanced south-western limb of the Beaufort Gyre in early winter is in agreement with a combination between the Beaufort High buildup and relatively thin sea ice.In summary, we provide evidence that the altimetric data set has skills to reproduce the seasonal cycle of SLA and geostrophic currents consistently with in situ data and findings from other studies. We suggest that this dataset could be used not only for large scale studies but also to study Arctic boundary currents.

This study presents recent observations to quantify oceanic heat fluxes along the continental slope of the Eurasian part of the Arctic Ocean, in order to understand the dominant processes leading to the observed along‐track heat loss of the Arctic Boundary Current (ABC). We investigate the fate of warm Atlantic Water (AW) along the Arctic Ocean continental margin of the Siberian Seas based on 11 cross‐slope conductivity, temperature, depth transects and direct heat flux estimates from microstructure profiles obtained in summer 2018. The ABC loses on average O(108) J m−2 per 100 km during its propagation along the Siberian shelves, corresponding to an average heat flux of 47 W m−2 out of the AW layer. The measured vertical heat flux on the upper AW interface of on average 10 W m−2 in the deep basin, and 3.7 W m−2 above the continental slope is larger than previously reported values. Still, these heat fluxes explain less than 20% of the observed heat loss within the boundary current. Heat fluxes are significantly increased in the turbulent near‐bottom layer, where AW intersects the continental slope, and at the lee side of a topographic irregularity. This indicates that mixing with ambient colder water along the continental margins is an important contribution to AW heat loss. Furthermore, the cold halocline layer receives approximately the same amount of heat due to upward mixing from the AW, compared to heat input from the summer‐warmed surface layer above. This underlines the importance of both surface warming and increased vertical mixing in a future ice‐free Arctic Ocean in summer., Plain Language Summary: Warm water from the Atlantic Ocean enters the Arctic Ocean through the Barents Sea and the Fram Strait, between Greenland and Norway, and directly influences the formation of sea ice: When the Atlantic Water (AW) is located close to the ocean's surface, as is the case shortly after its inflow in the Barents Sea, sea ice melts and new sea ice formation is hindered. This is why the Barents Sea is often ice free, even in winter. Further along the pathway, in the Laptev and East Siberian Sea study region, the AW gradually cools and dives down to deeper layers. In order to quantify the cooling and to understand how and where it happens, we measured vertical profiles of temperature and heat fluxes along a 2,500 km long part of the AW pathway. Based on these measurements, we found that the heat loss mainly occurs by mixing of warm AW with ambient cold water above the continental slope, in particular in the highly energetic region near the sea floor., Key Points: The Atlantic Water (AW) transported in the Arctic Boundary Current loses O(108) J m−2 per 100 km during its translation along the Siberian shelves Heat fluxes are larger than previously reported values, but too small to account for this heat loss, indicating the importance of boundary mixing The heat input from the underlying AW layer to the cold halocline is of similar magnitude to the heat input from the warm surface layer above, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347, NSF | GEO | Division of Ocean Sciences http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000141

The Arctic Ocean receives a large supply of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from its catchment and shelf sediments, which can be traced across much of the basin’s upper waters. This signature can potentially be used as a tracer. On the shelf, the combination of river discharge and sea-ice formation, modifies water densities and mixing considerably. These waters are a source of the halocline layer that covers much of the Arctic Ocean, but also contain elevated levels of DOM. Here we demonstrate how this can be used as a supplementary tracer and contribute to evaluating ocean circulation in the Arctic. A fraction of the organic compounds that DOM consists of fluoresce and can be measured using in-situ fluorometers. When deployed on autonomous platforms these provide high temporal and spatial resolution measurements over long periods. The results of an analysis of data derived from several Ice Tethered Profilers (ITPs) offer a unique spatial coverage of the distribution of DOM in the surface 800m below Arctic sea-ice. Water mass analysis using temperature, salinity and DOM fluorescence, can clearly distinguish between the contribution of Siberian terrestrial DOM and marine DOM from the Chukchi shelf to the waters of the halocline. The findings offer a new approach to trace the distribution of Pacific waters and its export from the Arctic Ocean. Our results indicate the potential to extend the approach to separate freshwater contributions from, sea-ice melt, riverine discharge and the Pacific Ocean. Key Points: Arctic surface waters with comparable temperature and salinity have contrasting in situ dissolved organic matter fluorescence. Organic matter fluorescence can tracklow salinity waters feeding into the Transpolar Drift and haloclinelayers. Siberian and Chukchishelf waters can be separated based on their fluorescence to salinity relationship

Highlights • First full water column measurements of tHg, pHg, MMHg, MeHg, and DGM at the Fram Strait. • The Arctic Ocean exports tHg- and MeHg-enriched waters to the North Atlantic Ocean. • The Arctic Ocean exports about 18 Mg y−1 of tHg to the Nordic Seas and North Atlantic. • About 40% of exported tHg is in the form of MeHg. The Fram Strait is the only deep connection between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The main water and mercury (Hg) fluxes between these oceans occur via the Fram Strait and Barents Sea Opening. Several Hg mass balance studies indicated a net Hg export from the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. However, in the absence of Hg measurements in the Fram Strait and Barents Sea Opening, these estimates were based on North Atlantic and central Arctic Ocean data alone. Here, we refine the Arctic total Hg (tHg) and methylated Hg (MeHg) mass budgets using new data acquired during the 2015 GEOTRACES (section GN04) TransArcII cruise in the Barents Sea Opening and the 2016 GEOTRACES (section GN05) GRIFF cruise, which covered the Fram Strait and Northeast Greenland Shelf. Total Hg increased westward along the Fram Strait transect, reaching the highest concentrations on the Northeast Greenland Shelf. Concentrations of tHg averaged 1.29 ± 0.43 pM in the East Greenland Current, while core waters of the West Spitsbergen Current had average values of 0.80 ± 0.26 pM. Using our new data, we estimate that 43 ± 9 Mg y−1 of tHg is transported to the Arctic Ocean in the core of the West Spitsbergen Current, while 54 ± 13 Mg y−1 of tHg is exported from the Arctic Ocean in the East Greenland Current and Recirculated Atlantic Water. This results in a net tHg export of 11 ± 8 Mg y−1via the Fram Strait. We find a shallow MeHg maximum (at 150 m depth) in the East Greenland Current, in agreement to what was reported for the central Arctic Ocean and Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The West Spitsbergen Current is characterized by lower MeHg concentrations and a deeper MeHg maximum, that is located at approximately 1000 m depth. We estimate a net MeHg export of 6 ± 2 Mg y−1 from the Arctic Ocean via the Fram Strait, which is nearly half of the exported tHg. Most of the exported MeHg is in the form of DMHg (2:1 ratio of dimethylmercury to monomethylmercury). Previous studies reported lower MeHg proportions. Our observations show that the Arctic Ocean is producing and exporting MeHg to the Atlantic Ocean. In total, the Arctic Ocean exports about 18 Mg y−1 of tHg to the Nordic Seas and North Atlantic via the Fram Strait and Davis Strait, of which 7.5 Mg y−1 is in the MeHg form.

Platelet ice is a unique type of sea ice; its occurrence has numerous implications for physical and ecological systems. Mostly, platelet ice has been reported from the Antarctic where ice crystals grow in supercooled ice shelf water and accumulate below sea ice to form sub-ice platelet layers. In the Arctic however, platelet ice formation has only been sparsely documented so far. The associated formation processes and morphology differ significantly from the Antarctic, but currently remain poorly understood. Here, we present the first comprehensive, repeat in-situ observations of a decimeter thick sub-ice platelet layer under drifting pack ice of the Central Arctic in winter. Observations carried out with a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) during the midwinter leg of the MOSAiC drift expedition provided clear evidence of the growth of platelet layers from supercooled water present in the ocean mixed layer. This process was observed under all ice types present during the surveys. Oceanographic data from autonomous observing platforms leads us to the conclusion that platelet ice formation is a widespread yet overlooked feature of Arctic winter sea ice growth.

Recent decades have seen a strong intensification of major circulation systems in the Arctic Ocean, namely the Beaufort Gyre and Transpolar Drift. Observing and studying seasonal, interannual and decadal variability of large-scale Arctic Ocean surface circulation is a key element to understand changes in climate-relevant export of both sea ice and fresh surface water from the Arctic. However, lack of in-situ ocean surface velocity observations have prevented further investigation until recently.In the past decade, charts of the Arctic geostrophic surface flow field have been derived from new satellite altimetry missions over the ice-covered oceans, such as CryoSat-2, which was launched in 2010. The altimetric measurements allow the detection of leads and therefore to retrieve sea surface height (SSH) across the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. Aiming to characterize the seasonal to interannual variability of geostrophic surface currents in the Transpolar Drift, we use SSH observations from the Cryosat-2 mission between 2011 and 2018.Here we present an evaluation of optimally interpolated altimetric SSH anomalies against in situ ocean observations of both bottom pressure and dynamic Height in Fram Strait and north of Arctic Cape, in the years between 2016 and 2018. Following the assessment of the quality of altimetry-based SSH, we discuss the timescales of SSH variability in seasonally ice-covered regions. Moreover, from the comparison with ocean bottom pressure and dynamic height we will attribute the relative importance of mass and steric contributions to the variability of SSH along the two transects. From first preliminary results in a test year (2011), SSH at a meridional transect in central Fram Strait between 78°N and 80°N shows a seasonal cycle with minimum in the months of March and April, enhanced at the most southern mooring.

Data from GEOTRACES cruises GN01 (HLY1502) and GN04 (PS94) have been archived at the Biological & Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO; https://www.bco-dmo.org/deployment/638807) and PANGAEA (https://www.pangaea.de/?q=PS94&f.campaign%5B%5D=PS94) websites, respectively. The inorganic carbon data are available at the NOAA Ocean Carbon Data System (OCADS ; doi :10.3334/CDIAC/OTG.CLIVAR_ARC01_33HQ20150809). In addition to these national data archives, the data used in this paper is available as a supplementary downloadable excel file; International audience; A major surface circulation feature of the Arctic Ocean is the Transpolar Drift (TPD), a current that transports river‐influenced shelf water from the Laptev and East Siberian Seas toward the center of the basin and Fram Strait. In 2015, the international GEOTRACES program included a high‐resolution pan‐Arctic survey of carbon, nutrients, and a suite of trace elements and isotopes (TEIs). The cruises bisected the TPD at two locations in the central basin, which were defined by maxima in meteoric water and dissolved organic carbon concentrations that spanned 600 km horizontally and ~25‐50 m vertically. Dissolved TEIs such as Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Hg, Nd, and Th, which are generally particle‐reactive but can be complexed by organic matter, were observed at concentrations much higher than expected for the open ocean setting. Other trace element concentrations such as Al, V, Ga, and Pb were lower than expected due to scavenging over the productive East Siberian and Laptev shelf seas. Using a combination of radionuclide tracers and ice drift modeling, the transport rate for the core of the TPD was estimated at 0.9 ± 0.4 Sv (106 m3 s‐1). This rate was used to derive the mass flux for TEIs that were enriched in the TPD, revealing the importance of lateral transport in supplying materials beneath the ice to the central Arctic Ocean and potentially to the North Atlantic Ocean via Fram Strait. Continued intensification of the Arctic hydrologic cycle and permafrost degradation will likely lead to an increase in the flux of TEIs into the Arctic Ocean.

The freshwater stored in the Arctic Ocean is an important component of the global climate system. Currently the Arctic liquid freshwater content (FWC) has reached a record high since the beginning of the last century. In this study we use numerical simulations to investigate the impact of sea ice decline on the Arctic liquid FWC and its spatial distribution. The global unstructured-mesh ocean general circulation model Finite Element Sea Ice–Ocean Model (FESOM) with 4.5-km horizontal resolution in the Arctic region is applied. The simulations show that sea ice decline increases the FWC by freshening the ocean through sea ice meltwater and modifies upper ocean circulation at the same time. The two effects together significantly increase the freshwater stored in the Amerasian basin and reduce its amount in the Eurasian basin. The salinification of the upper Eurasian basin is mainly caused by the reduction in the proportion of Pacific Water and the increase in that of Atlantic Water (AW). Consequently, the sea ice decline did not significantly contribute to the observed rapid increase in the Arctic total liquid FWC. However, the changes in the Arctic freshwater spatial distribution indicate that the influence of sea ice decline on the ocean environment is remarkable. Sea ice decline increases the amount of Barents Sea branch AW in the upper Arctic Ocean, thus reducing its supply to the deeper Arctic layers. This study suggests that all the dynamical processes sensitive to sea ice decline should be taken into account when understanding and predicting Arctic changes.

210Pb and 210Po are naturally occurring radionuclides that are commonly used as a proxy for particle and carbon export. In this study, the distribution of the 210Po/210Pb pair was investigated in the water column of the Barents, Kara and Laptev Seas and the Nansen, Amundsen and Makarov Basins in order to understand the particle dynamics in the Arctic Ocean during the 2007 sea-ice minimum (August–September). Minimum activities of total 210Pb and 210Po were found in the upper and lower haloclines (approx. 60–130 m), which are partly attributed to particle scavenging over the shelves, boundary current transport and subsequent advection of the water with low 210Pb and 210Po activities into the central Arctic. Widespread and substantial (> 50%) deficits of 210Po with respect to 210Pb were detected from surface waters to 200 m on the shelves, but also in the basins. This was particularly important in the Makarov Basin where, despite very low chlorophyll-a levels, estimates of annual new primary production were three times higher than in the Eurasian Basin. In the Nansen, Amundsen and Makarov Basins, estimates of annual new primary production correlated with the deficits of 210Po in the upper 200 m of the water column, suggesting that in situ production and subsequent export of biogenic material were the mechanisms that controlled the removal of 210Po in the central Arctic. Unlike 210Po, 234Th deficits measured during the same expedition were found to be very small and not significant below 25 m in the basins (Cai et al., 2010), which indicates, given the shorter half-life of 234Th, that particle export fluxes in the central Arctic would have been higher before July–August in 2007 than later in the season.

UDASH (Unified Database for Arctic and Subarctic Hydrography) is a unified and high-quality temperature and salinity data set for the Arctic Ocean and the subpolar seas north of 65∘ N for the period 1980–2015. The archive aims at including all publicly available data and so far consists of 288 532 oceanographic profiles measured mainly with conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) probes, bottles, mechanical thermographs and expendable thermographs. The data were collected by ships, ice-tethered profilers, profiling floats and other platforms. To achieve a uniform quality level, suitable for a wide range of oceanographic analyses, approximately 74 million single measurements of temperature and salinity were thoroughly quality checked. A large number of duplicate and erroneous profiles were detected and not included in the archive. Data outliers were flagged for quick identification. The final archive provides a unique and simple way of accessing most of the available temperature and salinity data for the Arctic Ocean and can be downloaded from https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.872931.

Dimethylsulfide (DMS) is a biogenic trace gas with importance to aerosol formation. DMS is produced by microbial degradation of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), an abundant metabolite in marine microalgae. We analyzed DMS and DMSP concentrations in surface water in the central Arctic Ocean during two expeditions north of 79°N in 2011 and 2015. We identified three regions, which were characterized by different DMS and DMSP concentrations, dependent on the regional water masses and the relative movement of sea ice and water to each other. In addition, correlations between DMS and DMSP and correlation of the two sulfur compounds to autotrophic biomass (as chlorophyll a) differed in the regions. In the area of the nutrient rich Atlantic water inflow and short contact of this water with sea ice, DMS is present in high concentrations and correlates to DMSP as well as chlorophyll a. At two stations, particularly high DMS concentrations were found in conjunction with under-ice phytoplankton biomass peaks. In contrast, in mixed Atlantic and Pacific water with strong polar influence, where long-term contact between sea ice and water causes persistent stratification, only little DMS is found. Further, the correlations to DMSP and chlorophyll a are lost and the ratio of DMS to DMSP is about one order of magnitude lower, pointing towards consumption of DMSP without the production of DMS. We conclude that the duration of sea ice influence and source of the surface water do not only lead to differences in phytoplankton productivity, resulting in different DMSP concentrations, but also influence microbial recycling of DMSP to DMS or other compounds. DMS production, as possible source for aerosols, is thus presumably lower in the strongly sea ice influenced central Arctic areas than what could be expected from DMSP concentration or biomass.

International audience; Sustained observations of environmental conditions in the North Pole region are critical to understanding the changing Arctic Ocean. The Transpolar Drift conduit of sea ice and freshened upper-ocean waters across the Arctic Ocean passes over the North Pole region on its way to the North Atlantic through Fram and Nares Straits. The exported ice and freshened water strati es the sub-Arctic seas and limits the vertical convection that ventilates the world ocean. Key variables such as ice thickness, bottom pressure, and hydrography in the North Pole region are thus sensitive indicators of changes over the whole Arctic Basin and how these affect the global ocean. Drifting buoys installed in the North Pole region by Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. address what would otherwise be a dearth of ocean, ice, and atmosphere observations in the central Arctic. A suite of satellite remote sensing tools such as ICESat/ICESat-2 from the U.S., GRACE from the U.S. and Germany, and CryoSat2 from the European Union extend the conclusions from central Arctic Ocean in situ observations to other regions. Detecting and understanding climate change requires observations over decadal and longer scales. We propose an international program as the key to sustaining these observations in the North Pole region. Such an international program would help immeasurably by 1) facilitating nancial sharing of the burden of long-term measurements among several nations, (2) reducing logistics costs through economies of scale, and 3) providing a buffer against national funding, logistics, and geopolitical dif culties.

Methane sources and sinks in the Arctic are poorly quantified. In particular, methane emissions from the Arctic Ocean and the potential sink capacity are still under debate. In this context sea ice impact on and the intense cycling of methane between sea ice and Polar surface water (PSW) becomes pivotal. We report on methane super- and under-saturation in PSW in the Eurasian Basin (EB), strongly linked to sea ice-ocean interactions. In the southern EB under-saturation in PSW is caused by both inflow of warm Atlantic water and short-time contact with sea ice. By comparison in the northern EB long-time sea ice-PSW contact triggered by freezing and melting events induces a methane excess. We reveal the Ttranspolar Drift Stream as crucial for methane transport and show that inter-annual shifts in sea ice drift patterns generate inter-annually patchy methane excess in PSW. Using backward trajectories combined with δ18O signatures of sea ice cores we determine the sea ice source regions to be in the Laptev Sea Polynyas and the off shelf regime in 2011 and 2015, respectively. We denote the Transpolar Drift regime as decisive for the fate of methane released on the Siberian shelves.

As consequences of global warming sea-ice shrinking, permafrost thawing and changes in fresh water and terrestrial material export have already been reported in the Arctic environment. These processes impact light penetration and primary production. To reach a better understanding of the current status and to provide accurate forecasts Arctic biogeochemical and physical parameters need to be extensively monitored. In this sense, bio-optical properties are useful to be measured due to the applicability of optical instrumentation to autonomous platforms, including satellites. This study characterizes the non-water absorbers and their coupling to hydrographic conditions in the poorly sampled surface waters of the central and eastern Arctic Ocean. Over the entire sampled area colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) dominates the light absorption in surface waters. The distribution of CDOM, phytoplankton and non-algal particles absorption reproduces the hydrographic variability in this region of the Arctic Ocean which suggests a subdivision into five major bio-optical provinces: Laptev Sea Shelf, Laptev Sea, Central Arctic/Transpolar Drift, Beaufort Gyre and Eurasian/Nansen Basin. Evaluating ocean color algorithms commonly applied in the Arctic Ocean shows that global and regionally tuned empirical algorithms provide poor chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) estimates. The semi-analytical algorithms Generalized Inherent Optical Property model (GIOP) and Garver-Siegel-Maritorena (GSM), on the other hand, provide robust estimates of Chl-a and absorption of colored matter. Applying GSM with modifications proposed for the western Arctic Ocean produced reliable information on the absorption by colored matter, and specifically by CDOM. These findings highlight that only semi-analytical ocean color algorithms are able to identify with low uncertainty the distribution of the different optical water constituents in these high CDOM absorbing waters. In addition, a clustering of the Arctic Ocean into bio-optical provinces will help to develop and then select province-specific ocean color algorithms. © 2018 Gonçalves-Araujo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The Arctic Circumpolar Boundary Current (ACBC) transports a vast amount of mass and heat around cyclonic gyres of the deep basins, acting as a narrow, topographically-controlled flow, confined to the continental margins. Current observations during 2002–2011 at seven moorings along the major Atlantic Water (AW) pathway, complemented by an extensive collection of measured temperatures and salinities as well as results of state-of-the-art numerical modeling, have been used to examine the spatial structure and temporal variability of the ACBC within the Eurasian Basin (EB). These observations and modeling results suggest a gradual, six-fold decrease of boundary current speed (from 24 to 4 cm/s) on the route between Fram Strait and the Lomonosov Ridge, accompanied by a transformation of the vertical flow structure from mainly barotropic in Fram Strait to baroclinic between the area north of Spitsbergen and the central Laptev Sea continental slope. The relative role of density-driven currents in maintaining AW circulation increases with the progression of the ACBC eastward from Fram Strait, so that baroclinic ACBC forcing dominates over the barotropic in the eastern EB. Mooring records have revealed that waters within the AW and the cold halocline layers circulate in roughly the same direction in the eastern EB. The seasonal signal, meanwhile, is the most powerful mode of variability in the EB, contributing up to ~70% of the total variability in currents (resolved by moorings records) within the eastern EB. Seasonal signal amplitudes for current speed and AW temperature both decrease with the eastward progression of AW flow from source regions, and demonstrate strong interannual modulation. In the 2000s, the state of the EB (e.g., circulation pattern, thermohaline conditions, and freshwater balance) experienced remarkable changes. Results showing anomalous circulation patterns for an extended period of 30 months in 2008–2010 for the eastern EB, and a two-core AW temperature structure that emerged in this region of the Arctic Ocean in the most recent decade, suggest a shift of the EB toward a new, more dynamic state. This also likely suggests that the EB interior will become more susceptible to future climate change. Evaluating properties of the ACBC, its temporal variability at time scales from a season to several years, and possible governing mechanisms, this study contributes to a better understanding of Arctic Ocean circulation.

Siberian river water is a first-order contribution to the Arctic freshwater budget, with the Ob, Yenisey, and Lena supplying nearly half of the total surface freshwater flux. However, few details are known regarding where, when, and how the freshwater transverses the vast Siberian shelf seas. This paper investigates the mechanism, variability, and pathways of the fresh Kara Sea outflow through Vilkitsky Strait toward the Laptev Sea. We utilize a high-resolution ocean model and recent shipboard observations to characterize the freshwater-laden Vilkitsky Strait Current (VSC), and shed new light on the little-studied region between the Kara and Laptev Seas, characterized by harsh ice conditions, contrasting water masses, straits, and a large submarine canyon. The VSC is 10–20 km wide, surface intensified, and varies seasonally (maximum from August to March) and interannually. Average freshwater (volume) transport is 500 ± 120 km3 a−1 (0.53 ± 0.08 Sv), with a baroclinic flow contribution of 50–90%. Interannual transport variability is explained by a storage-release mechanism, where blocking-favorable summer winds hamper the outflow and cause accumulation of freshwater in the Kara Sea. The year following a blocking event is characterized by enhanced transports driven by a baroclinic flow along the coast that is set up by increased freshwater volumes. Eventually, the VSC merges with a slope current and provides a major pathway for Eurasian river water toward the western Arctic along the Eurasian continental slope. Kara (and Laptev) Sea freshwater transport is not correlated with the Arctic Oscillation, but rather driven by regional summer pressure patterns.

Arctic sea-ice decline is expected to have a significant impact on Arctic marine ecosystems. Ice-associated fauna play a key role in this context because they constitute a unique part of Arctic biodiversity and transmit carbon from sea-ice algae into pelagic and benthic food webs. Our study presents the first regional-scale record of under-ice faunal distribution and the environmental characteristics of under-ice habitats throughout the Eurasian Basin. Sampling was conducted with a Surface and Under-Ice Trawl, equipped with a sensor array recording ice thickness and other physical parameters during trawling. We identified 2 environmental regimes, broadly coherent with the Nansen and Amundsen Basins. The Nansen Basin regime was distinguished from the Amundsen Basin regime by heavier sea-ice conditions, higher surface salinities and higher nitrate + nitrite concentrations. We found a diverse (28 species) under-ice community throughout the Eurasian Basin. Change in community structure reflected differences in the relative contribution of abundant species. Copepods (Calanus hyperboreus and C. glacialis) dominated in the Nansen Basin regime. In the Amundsen Basin regime, amphipods (Apherusa glacialis, Themisto libellula) dominated. Polar cod Boreogadus saida was present throughout the sampling area. Abrupt changes from a dominance of ice-associated amphipods at ice-covered stations to a dominance of pelagic amphipods (T. libellula) at nearby ice-free stations emphasised the decisive influence of sea ice on small-scale patterns in the surface-layer community. The observed response in community composition to different environmental regimes indicates potential long-term alterations in Arctic marine ecosystems as the Arctic Ocean continues to change.

The inflows of Atlantic water from the Nordic Seas to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait and over the Barents Sea are examined and their pathways and transformations in the Eurasian Basin are described based primarily on hydrographic observations from two cruises with RV Polarstern in 2007 and 2011. The contrast between the high salinity Atlantic water core in the Nansen Basin and the lower Atlantic water salinity in the Amundsen Basin, combined with a salinity minimum below the Atlantic layer, suggest that the Fram Strait branch mainly remains in the Nansen Basin, while the Barents Sea branch continues along the continental slope, enters the Amundsen Basin and provides most of the Atlantic water in the Makarov and Canada basins. To examine the consequences of such a circulation pattern recently published estimates of the in- and outflows of volume and liquid freshwater through the Barents Sea, Bering Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as well as river runoff, net precipitation and ice export are reviewed and added together. To achieve volume and freshwater balances net outflows through Fram Strait of 2.3 Sv and 100 mSv respectively are required. This is reasonably close to the recently reported Fram Strait transport estimates. The net outflows are separated into two parts, upper layer transports, less dense than the entering Atlantic water, and lower layer transports, as dense as or denser than the Atlantic water. The largest net volume outflow occurs in the lower layer, 1.65 Sv, while the liquid freshwater is almost exclusively exported in the 0.64 Sv net outflow in upper layer, leading to unrealistically low salinities in the upper layer compared with observations. Atlantic water is north of Svalbard transformed into less saline surface water through melting of sea ice, which can supply the necessary higher salinity (halocline) water to the upper layer. 1.23 Sv of halocline water of salinity 34.2 must be added to obtain a more realistic salinity of 33.1, leading to a total export of 1.84 Sv upper layer water in the East Greenland Current. Existing observations of the net transports into and out of the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait in different temperature classes are used to estimate the heat loss of the Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait. About 10 TW are supplied to the atmosphere in addition to the loss of 24 TW occurring in connection with the formation of the halocline water. If the hypothesis that the Fram Strait branch remains in the Nansen Basin is true, it implies a heat loss between 5 and 15 W m −2 in the Nansen Basin, depending upon how much heat is temporarily stored in the water column. This is high compared to the 2 W m −2 commonly cited as the ocean heat flux to the atmosphere in the Arctic Ocean.

The water masses passing the Fram Strait are mainly responsible for the exchange of heat and freshwater between the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean (the Arctic Mediterranean, AM). Disentangling their exact sources, distribution and mixing, however, is complex. This work provides new insights based on a detailed geochemical tracer inventory including dissolved Nd isotope (eNd), rare earth element (REE) and stable oxygen isotope (δ18O) data along a full water depth section across Fram Strait. We find that Nd isotope and REE distributions in the open AM primarily reflect lateral advection of water masses and their mixing. Seawater-particle interactions exert important control only above the shelf regions, as observed above the NE Greenland Shelf. Advection of northward flowing warm Atlantic Water (AW) is clearly reflected by an eNd signature of -11.7 and a Nd concentration ([Nd]) of 16 pmol/kg in the upper ∼500 m of the eastern and central Fram Strait. Freshening and cooling of the AW on its way trough the AM are accompanied by a continuous change towards more radiogenic eNd signatures (e.g. -10.4 of dense Arctic Atlantic Water). This mainly reflects mixing with intermediate waters but also admixture of dense Kara Sea waters and Pacific-derived waters. The more radiogenic eNd signatures of the intermediate and deep waters (reaching -9.5) are mainly acquired in the SW Nordic Seas through exchange with basaltic formations of Iceland and SE Greenland. Inputs of Nd from Svalbard are not observed and surface waters and Nd on the Svalbard shelf originate from the Barents Sea. Shallow southward flowing Arctic-derived waters (< 200 m) form the core of the East Greenland Current above the Greenland slope and can be traced by their relatively radiogenic eNd (reaching -8.8) and elevated [Nd] (21 to 29 pmol/kg). These properties are used together with δ18O and standard hydrographic tracers to define the proportions of Pacific-derived (< ∼30 % based on Nd isotopes) and Atlantic-derived waters, as well as of river waters (< ∼8 %). Shallow waters (< 150 m) on the NE Greenland Shelf share some characteristics of Arctic-derived waters, but exhibit less radiogenic eNd values (reaching -12.4) and higher [Nd] (up to 38 pmol/kg) in the upper ∼100 m. This suggests local addition of Greenland freshwater of up to ∼6 %. In addition to these observations, this study shows that the pronounced gradients in eNd signatures and REE characteristics in the upper water column provide a reliable basis for assessments of shallow hydrological changes within the AM.

Air-sea gas exchange plays a key role in the cycling of greenhouse and other biogeochemically important gases. Although air-sea gas transfer is expected to change as a consequence of the rapid decline in summer Arctic sea ice cover, little is known about the effect of sea ice cover on gas exchange fluxes, especially in the marginal ice zone. During the Polarstern expedition ARK-XXVI/3 (TransArc, August/September 2011) to the central Arctic Ocean, we compared 222Rn/226Ra ratios in the upper 50 m of 14 ice-covered and 4 ice-free stations. At three of the ice-free stations, we find 222Rn-based gas transfer coefficients in good agreement with expectation based on published relationships between gas transfer and wind speed over open water when accounting for wind history from wind reanalysis data. We hypothesize that the low gas transfer rate at the fourth station results from reduced fetch due to the proximity of the ice edge, or lateral exchange across the front at the ice edge by restratification. No significant radon deficit could be observed at the ice-covered stations. At these stations, the average gas transfer velocity was less than 0.1 m/d (97.5% confidence), compared to 0.5–2.2 m/d expected for open water. Our results show that air-sea gas exchange in an ice-covered ocean is reduced by at least an order of magnitude compared to open water. In contrast to previous studies, we show that in partially ice-covered regions, gas exchange is lower than expected based on a linear scaling to percent ice cover.

Freshwater in the Arctic Ocean plays an important role in the regional ocean circulation, sea ice, and global climate. From salinity observed by a variety of platforms, we are able, for the first time, to estimate a statistically reliable liquid freshwater trend from monthly gridded fields over all upper Arctic Ocean basins. From 1992 to 2012 this trend was 600±300 km3 yr−1. A numerical model agrees very well with the observed freshwater changes. A decrease in salinity made up about two thirds of the freshwater trend and a thickening of the upper layer up to one third. The Arctic Ocean Oscillation index, a measure for the regional wind stress curl, correlated well with our freshwater time series. No clear relation to Arctic Oscillation or Arctic Dipole indices could be found. Following other observational studies, an increased Bering Strait freshwater import to the Arctic Ocean, a decreased Davis Strait export, and enhanced net sea ice melt could have played an important role in the freshwater trend we observed.

The circulation and water mass properties in the Eurasian Basin are discussed based on a review of previous research and an examination of observations made in recent years within, or parallel to, DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observational Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies). The discussion is strongly biased towards observations made from icebreakers and particularly from the cruise with R/V Polarstern 2007 during the International Polar Year (IPY). Focus is on the Barents Sea inflow branch and its mixing with the Fram Strait inflow branch. It is proposed that the Barents Sea branch contributes not just intermediate water but also most of the water to the Atlantic layer in the Amundsen Basin and also in the Makarov and Canada basins. Only occasionally would high temperature pulses originating from the Fram Strait branch penetrate along the Laptev Sea slope across the Gakkel Ridge into the Amundsen Basin. Interactions between the Barents Sea and the Fram Strait branches lead to formation of intrusive layers, in the Atlantic layer and in the intermediate waters. The intrusion characteristics found downstream, north of the Laptev Sea are similar to those observed in the northern Nansen Basin and over the Gakkel Ridge, suggesting a flow from the Laptev Sea towards Fram Strait. The formation mechanisms for the intrusions at the continental slope, or in the interior of the basins if they are reformed there, have not been identified. The temperature of the deep water of the Eurasian Basin has increased in the last 10 yr rather more than expected from geothermal heating. That geothermal heating does influence the deep water column was obvious from 2007 Polarstern observations made close to a hydrothermal vent in the Gakkel Ridge, where the temperature minimum usually found above the 600–800 m thick homogenous bottom layer was absent. However, heat entrained from the Atlantic water into descending, saline boundary plumes may also contribute to the warming of the deeper layers.

Unprecedented summer-season sampling of the Arctic Ocean during the period 2006–2008 makes possible a quasi-synoptic estimate of liquid freshwater (LFW) inventories in the Arctic Ocean basins. In comparison to observations from 1992 to 1999, LFW content relative to a salinity of 35 in the layer from the surface to the 34 isohaline increased by 8400±2000 km3 in the Arctic Ocean (water depth greater than 500 m). This is close to the annual export of freshwater (liquid and solid) from the Arctic Ocean reported in the literature. Observations and a model simulation show regional variations in LFW were both due to changes in the depth of the lower halocline, often forced by regional wind-induced Ekman pumping, and a mean freshening of the water column above this depth, associated with an increased net sea ice melt and advection of increased amounts of river water from the Siberian shelves. Over the whole Arctic Ocean, changes in the observed mean salinity above the 34 isohaline dominated estimated changes in LFW content; the contribution to LFW change by bounding isohaline depth changes was less than a quarter of the salinity contribution, and non-linear effects due to both factors were negligible.

In the Arctic, under-ice primary production is limited to summer months and is restricted not only by ice thickness and snow cover but also by the stratification of the water column, which constrains nutrient supply for algal growth. Research Vessel Polarstern visited the ice-covered eastern-central basins between 82° to 89°N and 30° to 130°E in summer 2012, when Arctic sea ice declined to a record minimum. During this cruise, we observed a widespread deposition of ice algal biomass of on average 9 grams of carbon per square meter to the deep-sea floor of the central Arctic basins. Data from this cruise will contribute to assessing the effect of current climate change on Arctic productivity, biodiversity, and ecological function.