10.5281/zenodo.2682406
https://zenodo.org/records/2682406
oai:zenodo.org:2682406
Herbaut, Christophe
Christophe
Herbaut
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS):
Houssais, Marie‐Noelle
Marie‐Noelle
Houssais
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS):
Blaizot, Anne‐ Cécile
Anne‐ Cécile
Blaizot
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS):
Assessment of heat transport and distribution in the high Arctic in eddy resolving model (Milestone MS8)
Zenodo
2019
2019-05-09
eng
Project milestone
10.5281/zenodo.2682405
https://zenodo.org/communities/eu
https://zenodo.org/communities/blue-actionh2020
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Milestone: MS8
Work package in charge: WP2: Lower latitude drivers of Arctic changes
Actual achievement date of this milestone: Project month 29
Partner organisation in charge of the milestone and lead authors: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS): Christophe Herbaut, Marie-Noelle Houssais, Anne-Cécile Blaizot
Reviewers: Faroe Marine Research Institute (HAV): Karin Margretha H. Larsen, National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM): Gerard McCarthy
Milestone Type: Report
Dissemination level: Public
Means of verification of attainment of the milestone: Identification of robust metrics for the mean Atlantic Water temperature, the Atlantic Water section area, the Atlantic Water heat content and the heat and volume transports.
Achieved: Yes
Abstract: The decline of Arctic sea ice in the recent decades is regionally dependent, with an increasing trend since the mid 2000s in the Eurasian Basin (Close et al., 2015). The increase of the oceanic heat flux has been suggested to be the main driver of this ice loss in the eastern Eurasian Basin, with an estimated contribution of 40‐50 cm in ice growth reduction in the recent years (Polyakov et al., 2017). According to these authors, the decrease of the stability in the halocline and the shoaling of the Atlantic Water (AW) interface, often referred to as the Atlantification of the Eurasian Basin, altogether have provided favorable conditions for increased ocean heat transfer towards the surface. The source of these changes should be found in the region north of Svalbard where the warm AW inflowing through the Fram Strait first encounters the sea ice, being responsible for increased sea ice melt in the recent period.
Our goal in the Blue-Action project is to investigate how the heat provided by the Atlantic inflow through Fram Strait is subsequently modified along its pathway in the southern Eurasian Basin and to which extent its distribution controls the amount of heat which is transferred to the surface layer and ultimately to the sea ice. The analysis which is presented in this milestone focuses on the region around Svalbard to evaluate the upstream conditions at the entrance of the Arctic Ocean. It relies on results of a model simulation carried out using a 1/24° ocean‐sea ice model. The results have been compared to in situ observations (collected from moorings and shipborne CTD (Conductivity‐Temperature‐Depth)) in order to identify the metrics which are the more relevant to characterize the Atlantic water layer. The considered metrics are related to the heat content and transports of AW. They are used to assess the model ability to represent the observations.
The Blue-Action project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 727852 www.blue-action.eu
European Commission
10.13039/501100000780
727852
Arctic Impact on Weather and Climate