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Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 96 (2015): 2079–2105, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00177.1., The loss of Arctic sea ice has emerged as a leading signal of global warming. This, together with acknowledged impacts on other components of the Earth system, has led to the term “the new Arctic.” Global coupled climate models predict that ice loss will continue through the twenty-first century, with implications for governance, economics, security, and global weather. A wide range in model projections reflects the complex, highly coupled interactions between the polar atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere, including teleconnections to lower latitudes. This paper summarizes our present understanding of how heat reaches the ice base from the original sources—inflows of Atlantic and Pacific Water, river discharge, and summer sensible heat and shortwave radiative fluxes at the ocean/ice surface—and speculates on how such processes may change in the new Arctic. The complexity of the coupled Arctic system, and the logistic and technological challenges of working in the Arctic Ocean, require a coordinated interdisciplinary and international program that will not only improve understanding of this critical component of global climate but will also provide opportunities to develop human resources with the skills required to tackle related problems in complex climate systems. We propose a research strategy with components that include 1) improved mapping of the upper- and middepth Arctic Ocean, 2) enhanced quantification of important process, 3) expanded long-term monitoring at key heat-flux locations, and 4) development of numerical capabilities that focus on parameterization of heat-flux mechanisms and their interactions., 2016-06-01

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 1271-1305, doi:10.1002/2013JC008999., Time series of ice draft from 2003 to 2012 from moored sonar data are used to investigate variability and describe the reduction of the perennial sea ice cover in the Beaufort Gyre (BG), culminating in the extreme minimum in 2012. Negative trends in median ice drafts and most ice fractions are observed, while open water and thinnest ice fractions (<0.3 m) have increased, attesting to the ablation or removal of the older sea ice from the BG over the 9 year period. Monthly anomalies indicate a shift occurred toward thinner ice after 2007, in which the thicker ice evident at the northern stations was reduced. Differences in the ice characteristics between all of the stations also diminished, so that the ice cover throughout the region became statistically homogenous. The moored data are used in a relationship with satellite radiometer data to estimate ice volume changes throughout the BG. Summer solid fresh water content decreased drastically in consecutive years from 730 km3 in 2006 to 570 km3 in 2007, and to 240 km3 in 2008. After a short rebound, solid fresh water fell below 220 km3 in 2012. Meanwhile, hydrographic data indicate that liquid fresh water in the BG in summer increased 5410 km3 from 2003 to 2010 and decreased at least 210 km3 by 2012. The reduction of both solid and liquid fresh water components indicates a net export of approximately 320 km3 of fresh water from the region occurred between 2010 and 2012, suggesting that the anticyclonic atmosphere-ocean circulation has weakened., Support for Krishfield, Proshutinsky, and Timmermans, partial financial support of logistics, hydrographic observations on the board of Canadian icebreaker, and full financial coverage of all mooring instrumentation was provided by the National Science Foundation (under grants OPP-0230184, OPP-0424864, ARC-0722694, ARC-0806306, ARC- 0856531, ARC-1107277, and ARC- 1203720), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution internal funding. Funding for Tateyama was provided by the International Arctic Research Center – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (IJIS) Arctic project, and for Williams, Carmack, and McLaughlin by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Author Posting. © Oceanography Society, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 24 no. 3 (2011): 146–159, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2011.66., Sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean diminished significantly during the first decade of the 2000s, most particularly in the Canada Basin where the loss of both multiyear and first-year ice was greater than in the other three subbasins. Using data collected during basin-wide surveys conducted from 2003–2010 together with data collected during the 1990s and 2000s at one station in the southern Canada Basin, we investigate the response of the Canada Basin water column to this significant decrease in ice cover. Changes were evident from the surface down to the Atlantic layer: some changes were the result of Beaufort Gyre forcing on regional processes, others were the result of Arctic Ocean atmospheric forcing on a hemispheric scale and large-scale advection. These changes have troubling consequences for the ecosystem., We acknowledge support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the US National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (grant OPP-0424864), and the Canadian International Polar Year office.

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): C00A10, doi:10.1029/2008JC005104., We investigate basin-scale mechanisms regulating anomalies in freshwater content (FWC) in the Beaufort Gyre (BG) of the Arctic Ocean using historical observations and data collected in 2003–2007. Specifically, the mean annual cycle and interannual and decadal FWC variability are explored. The major cause of the large FWC in the BG is the process of Ekman pumping (EP) due to the Arctic High anticyclonic circulation centered in the BG. The mean seasonal cycle of liquid FWC is a result of interplay between the mechanical (EP) and thermal (ice transformations) factors and has two peaks. One peak occurs around June–July when the sea ice thickness reaches its minimum (maximum ice melt). The second maximum is observed in November–January when wind curl is strongest (maximum EP) and the salt input from the growing ice has not yet reached its maximum. Interannual changes in FWC during 2003–2007 are characterized by a strong positive trend in the region varying by location with a maximum of approximately 170 cm a−1 in the center of EP influenced region. Decadal FWC variability in the period 1950–2000 is dominated by a significant change in the 1990s forced by an atmospheric circulation regime change. The center of maximum FWC shifted to the southeast and appeared to contract in area relative to the pre-1990s climatology. In spite of the areal reduction, the spatially integrated FWC increased by over 1000 km3 relative to climatology., The funding for Andrey Proshutinsky, Richard Krishfield, John Toole, and Mary-Louise Timmermans (partial financial support of logistics, hydrographic observations on the board of Canadian icebreaker, and full financial coverage of all mooring instrumentation) was provided by the National Science Foundation (under grants ARC- 0806115, ARC-0631951, and ARC-0806306) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution internal funding.

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 32 (2005): L03605, doi:10.1029/2004GL021358., We examine the varieties and spatial distributions of Pacific and Eastern Arctic origin halocline waters in the Canada Basin using 2002–2003 hydrographic data. The halocline structure in the Canada Basin is different from the Eastern Arctic halocline because it includes fresher Pacific Winter Waters that form a “cold halostad” which lies above the Eastern Arctic origin lower halocline waters. The structure of the halostad in the Canada Basin, however, is not spatially uniform, and depends on the pathway and history of the source water. Pacific Winter Water entering through the Bering Strait becomes salty due to sea ice formation and this, in turn, is dependent on the occurrence and distribution of polynyas. In particular, saline water from the eastern Chukchi Sea forms thick halostad and causes depression of the isohalines in the southern Canada Basin. This depression influences thermohaline structure of the oceanic Beaufort Gyre., This work was funded in part by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 31 (2004): L20301, doi:10.1029/2004GL020860., Penetration of the 1990s warm temperature anomaly (WTA) of the Fram Strait branch of Atlantic Water (FSBW) in the Canada Basin is described using available temperature, salinity, and velocity data. The core temperatures of FSBW show distinct pathways. Over the Chukchi Borderland advective velocities of the FSBW are well-correlated with bottom topography. The resulting multifarious pathways over the Chukchi Borderland act to modulate and substantially increase the time scale of WTA spreading and advancement. Further downstream two WTA tongues are observed. One tongue followed the Beaufort Slope and, along this pathway, the core temperatures of FSBW decreased rapidly. The depth integrated value of heat content remained near constant however, suggesting enhanced vertical mixing. The second tongue debouched from the northern tip of the Northwind Ridge and spread eastward into the deep Canada Basin, suggesting a complex recirculation structure within the Beaufort Gyre., This work was funded in part by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 33 (2006): L08605, doi:10.1029/2005GL025624., The spatial pattern of recent ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean is similar to the distribution of warm Pacific Summer Water (PSW) that interflows the upper portion of halocline in the southern Canada Basin. Increases in PSW temperature in the basin are also well-correlated with the onset of sea-ice reduction that began in the late 1990s. However, increases in PSW temperature in the basin do not correlate with the temperature of upstream source water in the northeastern Bering Sea, suggesting that there is another mechanism which controls these concurrent changes in ice cover and upper ocean temperature. We propose a feedback mechanism whereby the delayed sea-ice formation in early winter, which began in 1997/1998, reduced internal ice stresses and thus allowed a more efficient coupling of anticyclonic wind forcing to the upper ocean. This, in turn, increased the flux of warm PSW into the basin and caused the catastrophic changes., This work was funded in part by Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

This study was motivated by a strong warming signal seen in mooring-based and oceanographic survey data collected in 2004 in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean. The source of this and earlier Arctic Ocean changes lies in interactions between polar and sub-polar basins. Evidence suggests such changes are abrupt, or pulse-like, taking the form of propagating anomalies that can be traced to higher-latitudes. For example, an anomaly found in 2004 in the eastern Eurasian Basin took ∼1.5 years to propagate from the Norwegian Sea to the Fram Strait region, and additional ∼4.5–5 years to reach the Laptev Sea slope. While the causes of the observed changes will require further investigation, our conclusions are consistent with prevailing ideas suggesting the Arctic Ocean is in transition towards a new, warmer state.