摘要
Based on the data measured during Arctic scientific expedition of China in 1999, the characteristics of temperature and salinity distributions around the Chukchi Plateau and its ad-jacent regions have been studied. It was found that the intermediate water with temperature higher than 0.5℃ existed in all parts of a 640 km section with a maximum temperature of 0.85℃ indicating a strong signal of the warming in Arctic Intermediate Water in 1999. Two important phenomena are described in this paper. First, the temperature of warm water was horizontally nonuniform. In the area of Chukchi Plateau, the temperature was higher, the layer of warm water was thicker and the depth of the warm water core was shallower than those in the area of con-tinental slope. The horizontal nonuniformity of the temperature distribution of warming water im-plies that the upward heat flux should also be nonuniform, thus exerting different effects on sea ice thickness, ice extent, and air-sea heat exchange. The mechanism to generate higher tem-perature in the plateau region was the bypassing of current around the plateau area caused by the special local topography, which restricted water exchange across the plateau and conserved heat in the water body. Second, the deep water down to 1400 m was also warming with a tem-perature increase of 0.2℃. The warming in deep water reflects the occurrence of complicated heat redistribution processes in the intermediate water, which altered the thermal structure in the upper 1400 m. The warming data embody the obvious impact of global climate change on the Arctic Ocean and further studies are wanted.
Based on the data measured during Arctic scientific expedition of China in 1999, the characteristics of temperature and salinity distributions around the Chukchi Plateau and its ad-jacent regions have been studied. It was found that the intermediate water with temperature higher than 0.5℃ existed in all parts of a 640 km section with a maximum temperature of 0.85℃ indicating a strong signal of the warming in Arctic Intermediate Water in 1999. Two important phenomena are described in this paper. First, the temperature of warm water was horizontally nonuniform. In the area of Chukchi Plateau, the temperature was higher, the layer of warm water was thicker and the depth of the warm water core was shallower than those in the area of con-tinental slope. The horizontal nonuniformity of the temperature distribution of warming water im-plies that the upward heat flux should also be nonuniform, thus exerting different effects on sea ice thickness, ice extent, and air-sea heat exchange. The mechanism to generate higher tem-perature in the plateau region was the bypassing of current around the plateau area caused by the special local topography, which restricted water exchange across the plateau and conserved heat in the water body. Second, the deep water down to 1400 m was also warming with a tem-perature increase of 0.2℃. The warming in deep water reflects the occurrence of complicated heat redistribution processes in the intermediate water, which altered the thermal structure in the upper 1400 m. The warming data embody the obvious impact of global climate change on the Arctic Ocean and further studies are wanted.
基金
the special project for China firs tscientific expedition
the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.49876008)
the Key Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.KZ951-A1-205).
