HR: 16:05h
AN: C54A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Sources and Fate of Fresh Water in the Arctic Ocean
AU: * Jones, E
EM: jonesp@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
AF: E. Peter Jones, Bedford Institute of Oceanography PO Box 1006, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4A2 Canada
AB: There is more evaporation from the Atlantic Ocean than precipitation into it. Excess evaporated water falls as rain into the Pacific Ocean and into river drainage basins, which both feed into the Arctic Ocean and form part of the Polar Mixed Layer. The Polar Mixed Layer also contains sea ice meltwater and water from the Atlantic Ocean. Fresh water flows from the Arctic Ocean via the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the East Greenland Current and influences deep water formation rate in the Labrador and Nordic seas as well as the salinity of the waters flowing from these regions. It has been speculated that climate change could alter the amount of sea ice meltwater and river runoff flowing from the Arctic Ocean to the deep-water formation regions of the Nordic and Labrador Seas. How water from these sources are distributed within the Arctic Ocean, how they vary, how they affect deep convection, and how they are partitioned into the various pathways to be redistributed in the North Atlantic are fundamental questions to be addressed for a better understanding of climate processes and climate change. Within the Arctic Ocean we identify and trace fresh water using nitrate-phosphate relationships to distinguish Pacific waters from Atlantic waters, salinity to obtain the sum of sea ice meltwater and river runoff water, and total alkalinity to distinguish between the latter. With tracers, we can produce a map of fresh water distributions within the Arctic Ocean and note some variability. We also can trace these waters through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago to Baffin Bay and as far south as the Grand Banks and in the East Greenland Current to south of Denmark Strait.
DE: 9315 Arctic region
DE: 4536 Hydrography
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting