scholarly journals Changes in Circulation and Particle Scavenging in the Amerasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean over the Last Three Decades Inferred from the Water Column Distribution of Geochemical Tracers

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (12) ◽  
pp. 9338-9363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Grenier ◽  
Roger François ◽  
Maureen Soon ◽  
Michiel Rutgers van der Loeff ◽  
Xiaoxin Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Geochemical Tracers ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Particle Scavenging ◽  
Amerasian Basin

scholarly journals Modelling the effect of boundary scavenging on Thorium and Protactinium profiles in the ocean

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 7853-7896 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Roy-Barman
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
Open Ocean ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Transport Parameters ◽  
Lateral Transport ◽  
Transport Reaction ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Boundary Scavenging

Abstract. The "boundary scavenging" box model is a cornerstone of our understanding of the particle-reactive radionuclide fluxes between the open ocean and the ocean margins. However, it does not describe the radionuclide profiles in the water column. Here, I present the transport-reaction equations for radionuclides transported vertically by reversible scavenging on settling particles and laterally by horizontal currents between the margin and the open ocean. Analytical solutions of these equations are compared with existing data. In the Pacific Ocean, the model produces "almost" linear 230Th profiles (as observed in the data) despite lateral transport. However, omitting lateral transport biased the 230Th based particle flux estimates by as much as 50%. 231Pa profiles are well reproduced in the whole water column of the Pacific Margin and from the surface down to 3000 m in the Pacific subtropical gyre. Enhanced bottom scavenging or inflow of 231Pa-poor equatorial water may account for the model-data discrepancy below 3000 m. The lithogenic 232Th is modelled using the same transport parameters as 230Th but a different source function. The main source of 232Th scavenged in the open Pacific is advection from the ocean margin, whereas a net flux of 230Th produced in the open Pacific is advected and scavenged at the margin, illustrating boundary exchange. In the Arctic Ocean, the model reproduces 230Th measured profiles that the uni-dimensional scavenging model or the scavenging-ventilation model failed to explain. Moreover, if lateral transport is ignored, the 230Th based particle settling speed may by underestimated by a factor 4 at the Arctic Ocean margin. The very low scavenging rate in the open Arctic Ocean combined with the enhanced scavenging at the margin accounts for the lack of high 231Pa/230Th ratio in arctic sediments.

Implementation of a multipurpose Arctic Ocean Observing System

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stein Sandven ◽  
Hanne Sagen ◽  
Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller ◽  
Peter Vo ◽  
Marie-Noelle Houssais ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Acoustic Thermometry ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Global Coverage ◽  
Cable Systems ◽  
Ocean Observing ◽  
Observing Systems

<p>The central Arctic Ocean is one of the least observed oceans in the world. This ice-covered region is challenging for ocean observing with respect to technology, logistics and costs. Many physical, biogeochemical, biological, and geophysical processes in the water column and sea floor under the sea ice are difficult to observe and therefore poorly understood. Today, there are technological advances in platforms and sensors for under-ice observation, which offer possibilities to install and operate sustained observing infrastructures in the Arctic Ocean. The goal of the INTAROS project is to develop integrated observing systems in the Arctic, including improvement of data sharing and dissemination to various user groups. INTAROS supports a number of systems providing data from the ocean in delayed mode as well as in near-real time mode, but only a few operate in the ice-covered areas.</p><p>Autonomous observing platforms used in the ice-free oceans such as Argo floats, gliders, and autonomous surface vehicles cannot yet be used operationally in ice-covered Arctic regions. The limitation is because the sea ice prevents these underwater platforms from reaching the surface for satellite communication and geopositioning. To improve the Arctic Ocean Observing capability OceanObs19 recommended ‘to pilot a sustained multipurpose acoustic network for positioning, tomography, passive acoustics, and communication in an integrated Arctic Observing System, with eventual transition to global coverage’. Acoustic networks have been used locally and regionally in the Arctic for underwater acoustic thermometry, geo-positioning for floats and gliders, and passive acoustic. The Coordinated Arctic Acoustic Thermometry Experiment (CAATEX) is a first step toward developing a basin-scale multipurpose acoustic network using modern instrumentation.</p><p>To provide secure data delivery, submarine cables are needed either as dedicated cabled observatories or as hybrid cable systems (sharing the cable infrastructure between science and commercial telecommunications), or both combined. Several large-scale cabled observatories existing coastal areas in world oceans, but none on the Arctic Ocean. At OceanObs19 it was recommended to transition (telecom+sensing) SMART subsea cable systems from present pilots to trans-ocean implementation, to address climate, ocean circulation, sea level, tsunami and earthquake early warning, ultimately with global coverage. Cabled observatories, either stand alone or branching from a hybrid system, could provide power and real time communication to support connected water column moorings and sea floor instrumentation as well as docking mobile platforms. Subsea cable developers are looking into the possibility to deploy a communication cable across the Arctic Ocean from Europe to Asia, because this offers a much shorter route compared to the terrestrial cables.</p><p> An international consortium of leading scientists in ocean observing with experience in state-of-the-art technologies on platforms, sensors, subsea cable technology, acoustic communication and data transmission plan to establish a project to implement and test the system based on experience from the CAATEX experiment and other Arctic observing system experiments. The INTAROS project is presently developing a Roadmap for an integrated Arctic Observing System, where multipurpose ocean observing systems will be one component.</p>

scholarly journals How well does wind speed predict air-sea gas transfer in the sea ice zone? A synthesis of radon deficit profiles in the upper water column of the Arctic Ocean

2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 3696-3714 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Loose ◽  
R. P. Kelly ◽  
A. Bigdeli ◽  
W. Williams ◽  
R. Krishfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Gas Transfer ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

scholarly journals Arctic freshwater fluxes: sources, tracer budgets and inconsistencies

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2111-2131
Author(s):  
Alexander Forryan ◽  
Sheldon Bacon ◽  
Takamasa Tsubouchi ◽  
Sinhué Torres-Valdés ◽  
Alberto C. Naveira Garabato
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Freshwater Flux ◽  
Geochemical Tracers ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
Boundary Velocity ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Geochemical Method

Abstract. The net rate of freshwater input to the Arctic Ocean has been calculated in the past by two methods: directly, as the sum of precipitation, evaporation and runoff, an approach hindered by sparsity of measurements, and by the ice and ocean budget method, where the net surface freshwater flux within a defined boundary is calculated from the rate of dilution of salinity, comparing ocean inflows with ice and ocean outflows. Here a third method is introduced, the geochemical method, as a modification of the budget method. A standard approach uses geochemical tracers (salinity, oxygen isotopes, inorganic nutrients) to compute “source fractions” that quantify a water parcel's constituent proportions of seawater, freshwater of meteoric origin, and either sea ice melt or brine (from the freezing-out of sea ice). The geochemical method combines the source fractions with the boundary velocity field of the budget method to quantify the net flux derived from each source. Here it is shown that the geochemical method generates an Arctic Ocean surface freshwater flux, which is also the meteoric source flux, of 200±44 mSv (1 Sv=106 m3 s−1), statistically indistinguishable from the budget method's 187±44 mSv, so that two different approaches to surface freshwater flux calculation are reconciled. The freshwater export rate of sea ice (40±14 mSv) is similar to the brine export flux, due to the “freshwater deficit” left by the freezing-out of sea ice (60±50 mSv). Inorganic nutrients are used to define Atlantic and Pacific seawater categories, and the results show significant non-conservation, whereby Atlantic seawater is effectively “converted” into Pacific seawater. This is hypothesized to be a consequence of denitrification within the Arctic Ocean, a process likely becoming more important with seasonal sea ice retreat. While inorganic nutrients may now be delivering ambiguous results on seawater origins, they may prove useful to quantify the Arctic Ocean's net denitrification rate. End point degeneracy is also discussed: multiple property definitions that lie along the same “mixing line” generate confused results.

A perfect bowl-like submesoscale vortex from seismic reflection transect in the Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun Yang ◽  
Haibin Song ◽  
Kun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
Chukchi Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Physical Oceanography ◽  
Depth Range ◽  
Seismic Line ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
The Right

<p>The eddies are ubiquitous in the ocean and play an important role in the transportation and redistribution of heat, salt, carbon, nutrients and other materials in the global ocean, thus can regulate global climate and affect the distribution of marine organism. Compared with mesoscale eddies, submesoscale vortices (SVs) have smaller spatial and temporal scales, which impose higher requirements on observation and simulation. The oceanic SVs have a strong vertical velocity, which provides an important supply of nutrients in the upper ocean.</p><p>Many researchers have studied the SVs in the Arctic Ocean by physical oceanography methods (e.g., <em>in-situ </em>measurements and satellite observations). Here, we found a perfect bowl-like SV using a new method named seismic oceanography (SO). SO can use multichannel seismic (MCS) reflection data to produce surprisingly detailed images of water column. Compared with the traditional physical oceanography methods, SO has the advantages of high acquisition efficiency, high lateral resolution (~10 m) and full depth imaging of seawater.</p><p>We used MCS data to image the water column in the in autumn Northeast Chukchi Sea, and captured a perfect bowl-like structure with a depth range of ~200-620m. The structure is almost bilaterally symmetric and has dip angles of 4.8° and 5.5° on the left and on the right, respectively. And it has a horizontal scale of about 12 km at the top and 4.5 km at the bottom, and both the top and bottom of it are near horizontal. The reflections are almost blank in its interior, but are intense and very narrow (~30 m thick) at the lateral boundaries. This indicated that the interior water is homogeneous and quite different from that around it. Fortunately, there is an XBT station near the seismic line and collected almost simultaneously (only one day apart) with the seismic line. The XBT station shows obvious high temperature anomaly over 2°C at the depth of 210-700 m. Therefore, we concluded the structure is a subsurface warm SV, i.e. anticyclonic warm eddy, and may be a submesoscale coherent vortex (SCV). The anomalies from the surrounding water masses indicate that the SV was created at the edge of the Arctic Ocean and then advected here.</p><p>In addition, we used Rossby number (Ro) and Okubo-Weiss (OW) parameter calculated from daily-averaged re-analysis hydrographic data (~3.5 km of grid spacing at 75°N ) from Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) to analyze the SV. Result shows that the values of the Ro and OW parameter in the area of the SV are both negative. This also suggests that this SV is an anticyclone. This submesoscale anticyclonic vortex may be generated from the friction effect between the warm inflow from the North Pacific and the right wall of Barrow Canyon after passing through the Bering Strait, and then transported to the Northeast of Chukchi Sea by the Beaufort Gyre.</p>

Transformation of Atlantic Water in the Barents Sea in winter: overview of “Transarctika-2019” cruise results

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Ivanov ◽  
Ivan Frolov ◽  
Kirill Filchuk
Keyword(s):  
Characteristic Feature ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Open Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

<p>In the recent few years the topic of accelerated sea ice loss, and related changes in the vertical structure of water masses in the East-Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean, including the Barents Sea and the western part of the Nansen Basin, has been in the foci of multiple studies. This region even earned the name the “Arctic warming hotspot”, due to the extreme retreat of sea ice and clear signs of change in the vertical hydrographic structure from the Arctic type to the sub-Arctic one. A gradual increase in temperature and salinity in this area has been observed since the mid-2000s. This trend is hypothetically associated with a general decrease in the volume of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, which leads to a decrease of ice import in the Barents Sea, salinization, weakening of density stratification, intensification of vertical mixing and an increase of heat and salt fluxes from the deep to the upper mixed layer. The result of such changes is a further reduction of sea ice, i.e. implementation of positive feedback, which is conventionally refereed as the “atlantification. Due to the fact that the Barents Sea is a relatively shallow basin, the process of atlantification might develop here much faster than in the deep Nansen Basin. Thus, theoretically, the hydrographic regime in the northern part of the Barents Sea may rapidly transform to a “Nordic Seas – wise”, a characteristic feature of which is the year-round absence of the ice cover with debatable consequences for the climate and ecosystem of the region and adjacent land areas. Due to the obvious reasons, historical observations in the Barents Sea mostly cover the summer season. Here we present a rare oceanographic data, collected during the late winter - early spring in 2019. Measurements were occupied at four sequential oceanographic surveys from the boundary between the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea – the so called Barents Sea opening to the boundary between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Completed hydrological sections allowed us to estimate the contribution of the winter processes in the Atlantic Water transformation at the end of the winter season. Characteristic feature of the observed transformation is the homogenization of the near-to-bottom part of the water column with remaining stratification in the upper part. A probable explanation of such changes is the dominance of shelf convection and cascading of dense water over the open sea convection. In this case, complete homogenization of the water column does not occur, since convection in the open sea is impeded by salinity and density stratification, which is maintained by melting of the imported sea ice in the relatively warm water. The study was supported by RFBR grant # 18-05-60083.</p>

scholarly journals One-dimensional evolution of the upper water column in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean in winter

2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (3) ◽  
pp. 1665-1682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilker Fer ◽  
Algot K. Peterson ◽  
Achim Randelhoff ◽  
Amelie Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Water Column ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The Arctic Ocean
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