Distribution of Pacific-origin water in the region of the Chukchi Plateau in the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2003

The upper ocean thermohaline structures in the region of the Chukchi Plateauare analyzed with the hydrographic data collected by the Chinese National Arctic Research Expeditionin the summer of 2003. Three types of the Pacific-origin water were found in the upper ocean,Alaska Coastal Water (ACW), summer Bering Sea Water (sBSW) and winter Bering Sea Water (wBSW) areindicated by two maximums temperature and one minimum temperature, piling up from the upper to thelower respectively. The extreme warm ACW with a maximum temperature of 1.62℃ was found in thesouthwestern Canada Basin at a depth of about 50 m. A pathway of the ACW into the basin from itsadjacent area did not existed in the expedition period. So it is speculated that the extreme warmfeature of the ACW was formed locally in 2003. The relative weak ACW occurred to the east of theChukchi Cap and in the southern Chukchi Abyssal Plain. The latter one might originate from a warmdownwelling that existed in a small canyon at the shelf break of the Chukchi Sea. The sBSW withoutthe ACW was found only at the southwestern flank of the Chukchi Cap. The ACW and the sBSW were notfound in the northernmost station at 81°N,which indicates the north boundary of the upperPacific-origin water in the Canada Basin. The wBSW, which existed in all deep stations, was exactlyuniform at temperature. The difference of the core potential temperature of the wBSW in the deepregions is only 0.08℃.

Water mass of the northward throughflow in the Bering Strait in the summer of 2003

The temperature and salinity data obtained by the Chinese national arctic research expedition （CHINARE2003） are used to study the water structure in the Bering Strait and ambient regions. Four water masses appeared in the research region： the intermediate Bering Sea water mass （IBWM）, the Alaska coastal water （ACW）, the Anadyr water （AW） and the Bering shelf water （BSW）. The AW originates from the IBWM, but the upper layer water has been greatly altered. In the cruise on 28/29 July 2003, there were only the BSW and ACW in a section across the Bering Strait （BS section）, but in the September 12/13 cruise, the AW, BSW and ACW flowed parallelly into the Bering Strait. The upper waters of these water masses were all altered due to ice melting, runoff, solar radiation, and wind mixing. The waters in the central and northern parts of Bering Strait stratified by two uniform layers,were expressed as the typical feature of the water masses originating from the pacific. A two-layer structure also dominated the vertical stratification in most part of the Chukchi Sea. An obvious subseasonal variation was observed in the BS section, which caused varying transportation of fresh water, heat, and substance, and produced a long-term and extensive impact on the Arctic Ocean.

Surface Heat Budget and Solar Radiation Allocation at a Melt Pond During Summer in the Central Arctic Ocean

The heat budget of a melt pond surface and the solar radiation allocation at the melt pond are studied using the 2010 Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition data collected in the central Arctic. Temperature at a melt pond surface is proportional to the air temperature above it. However, the linear relationship between the two varies, depending on whether the air temperature is higher or lower than 0℃. The melt pond surface temperature is strongly influenced by the air temperature when the latter is lower than 0℃. Both net longwave radiation and turbulent heat flux can cause energy loss in a melt pond, but the loss by the latter is larger than that by the former. The turbulent heat flux is more than twice the net longwave radiation when the air temperature is lower than 0℃. More than 50% of the radiation energy entering the pond surface is absorbed by pond water. Very thin ice sheet on the pond surface(black ice) appears when the air temperature is lower than 0℃; on the other hand, only a small percentage(5.5%) of net longwave in the solar radiation is absorbed by such a thin ice sheet.

Deep waters warming in the Nordic seas from 1972 to 2013

The warming of deep waters in the Nordic seas is identified based on observations during Chinese 5th Arctic Expedition in 2012 and historical hydrographic data. The most obvious and earliest warming occurrs in the Greenland Basin （GB） and shows a coincident accelerated trend between depths 2000 and 3500 m. The ob-servations at a depth of 3000 m in the GB reveal that the potential temperature had increased from ？1.30°C in the early 1970s to ？0.93°C in 2013, with an increase of about 0.37°C （the maximum spatial deviation is 0.06°C） in the past more than 40 years. This remarkable change results in that deep waters in the center of the Lofton Basin （LB） has been colder than that in the GB since the year 2007. As for the Norwegian Basin （NB）, only a slight trend of warming have been shown at a depth around 2000 m since the early 1980s, and the warming amplitude at deeper waters is just slightly above the maximum spatial deviation, implying no obvious trend of warming near the bottom. The water exchange rate of the Greenland Basin is estimated to be 86% for the period from 1982 to 2013, meaning that the residence time of the Greenland Sea deep water （GSDW） is about 35 years. As the weakening of deep-reaching convection is going on, the abyssal Nordic seas are playing a role of heat reservoir in the subarctic region and this may cause a positive feedback on the deep-sea warming in both the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic seas.

Temporal variability of vertical heat flux in the Makarov Basin during the ice camp observation in summer 2010

Based on hydrographic data obtained at an ice camp deployed in the Makarov Basin by the 4th Chinese Arctic Research Expedition in August of 2010, temporal variability of vertical heat flux in the upper ocean of the Makarov Basin is investigated together with its impacts on sea ice melt and evolution of heat content in the remnant of winter mixed layer （rWML）. The upper ocean of the Makarov Basin under sea ice is vertically stratified. Oceanic heat flux from mixed layer （ML） to ice evolves in three stages as a response to air temperature changes, fluctuating from 12.4 W/m2 to the maximum 43.6 W/m2. The heat transferred upward from ML can support （0.7＋0.3） cm/d ice melt rate on average, and daily variability of melt rate agrees well with the observed results. Downward heat flux from ML across the base of ML is much less, only 0.87 W/m2, due to enhanced stratification in the seasonal halocline under ML caused by sea ice melt, indicating that increasing solar heat entering summer ML is mainly used to melt sea ice, with a small proportion transferred downward and stored in the rWML. Heat flux from ML into rWML changes in two phases caused by abrupt air cooling with a day lag. Meanwhile, upward heat flux from Atlantic water （AW） across the base of rWML, even though obstructed by the cold halocline layer （CHL）, reaches 0.18 W/m2 on average with no obvious changing pattern and is also trapped by the rWML. Upward heat flux from deep AW is higher than generally supposed value near 0, as the existence of rWML enlarges the temperature gradient between surface water and CHL. Acting as a reservoir of heat transferred from both ML and AW, the increasing heat content of rWML can delay the onset of sea ice freezing.

Regional characteristics of sea ice thickness in Canadian shelf and Arctic Archipelago measured by Ground Penetrating Radar

Ground Penetrating Radar （GPR） measurements of sea ice thickness including undeformed ice and ridged ice were carried out in the central north Canadian Archipelago in spring 2010. Results have shown a significant spatial heterogeneity of sea ice thickness across the shelf. The undeformed multi-year fast ice of （2.05±0.09） m thick was investigated southern inshore zone of Borden island located at middle of the observational section, which was the observed maximum thickness in the field work. The less thick sea ice was sampled across a flaw lead with the thicknesses of （1.05±0.11） m for the pack ice and （1.24±0.13） m for the fast ice. At the northernmost spot of the section, the undeformed multi-year pack ice was （1.54±0.22） m thick with a ridged ice of 2.5 to 3 m, comparing to the multi-year fast ice with the thickness of （1.67±0.16） m at the southernmost station in the Prince Gustaf Adolf Sea.

Summer freshwater content variability of the upper ocean in the Canada Basin during recent sea ice rapid retreat

Freshwater content （FWC） in the Arctic Ocean has changed rapidly in recent years, in response to significant decreases in sea ice extent. Research on freshwater content variability in the Canada Basin, the main storage area of fresh water is very important to understand the input-output freshwater in the Arctic Ocean. The FWC in the Canada Basin was calculated using data from the Chinese National Arctic Research Expeditions of 2003 and 2008, and from expeditions of the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent （LSSL） from 2004 to 2007. Results show that the upper ocean in the Canada Basin became continuously fresher from 2003 to 2008, except during 2006. The FWC increased at a rate of more than 1 m.a-1, and the maximum increase, 7 m, was in the central basin compared between 2003 and 2008. Variability of the FWC was almost entirely limited to the layer above the winter Bering Sea Water （wBSW）, below which the FWC remained around 3 m during the study period. Contributors to the FWC increase are generally considered to be net precipitation, runoff changes, Pacific water inflow through the Bering Strait, sea ice extent, and the Arctic Oscillation（AO）. However, we determined that the first three contributors did not have apparent impact on the FWC changes. Therefore, this paper focuses on analysis of the latter two factors and the results indicate that they were the major contributors to the FWC variability in the basin.

Turbulent mixing in the upper ocean of the northwestern Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Turbulent mixing in the upper ocean（30-200 m） of the northwestern Weddell Sea is investigated based on profiles of temperature,salinity and microstructure data obtained during February 2014.Vertical thermohaline structures are distinct due to geographic features and sea ice distribution,resulting in that turbulent dissipation rates（ε） and turbulent diffusivity（K） are vertically and spatially non-uniform.On the shelf north of Antarctic Peninsula and Philip Ridge,with a relatively homogeneous vertical structure of temperature and salinity through the entire water column in the upper 200 m,both ε and K show significantly enhanced values in the order of O（10^（-7））-O（10^（-6）） W/kg and O（10^（-3））-O（10^（-2）） m^2/s respectively,about two or three orders of magnitude higher than those in the open ocean.Mixing intensities tend to be mild due to strong stratification in the Powell Basin and South Orkney Plateau,where s decreases with depth from O（10^（-8）） to O（10^（-9）） W/kg,while K changes vertically in an inverse direction relative to s from O（10^（-6）） to O（10^（-5）） m^2/s.In the marginal ice zone,K is vertically stable with the order of10^（-4） m^2/s although both intense dissipation and strong stratification occur at depth of 50-100 m below a cold freshened mixed layer.Though previous studies indentify wind work and tides as the primary energy sources for turbulent mixing in coastal regions,our results indicate weak relationship between K and wind stress or tidal kinetic energy.Instead,intensified mixing occurs with large bottom roughness,demonstrating that only when internal waves generated by wind and tide impinge on steep topography can the energy dissipate to support mixing.In addition,geostrophic current flowing out of the Weddell Sea through the gap west of Philip Passage is another energy source contributing to the local intense mixing.

Thermodynamic model of melt pond and its application during summer of 2010 in the central Arctic Ocean

A one-dimensional thermodynamic model of melt pond is established in this paper. The observation data measured in the summer of 2010 by the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition （CHINARE-2010） are used to partially parameterize equations and to validate results of the model. About 85% of the incident solar radiation passed through the melt pond surface, and some of it was released in the form of sensible and latent heat. However, the released energy was very little （about 15%）, compared to the incident solar radiation. More than 58.6% of the incident energy was absorbed by melt pond water, which caused pond-covered ice melting and variation of pond water temperature. The simulated temperature of melt pond had a diurnal variation and its value ranged between 0.0~C and 0.3~C. The melting rate of upper pond-covered ice is estimated to be around two times faster than snow-covered ice. At same time, the change of melting rate was relatively quick for pond depth less than 0.4 m, while the melting rate kept relatively constant （about 1.0 cm/d） for pond depth greater than 0.4 m.

南极威德尔-斯科舍汇流区上层湍流混合特征及其与水团和环流的联系

利用中国第32次南极科学考察队于2015年12月至2016年1月在南极威德尔-斯科舍汇流区获得的湍流微结构、温盐深仪和下放式声学多普勒海流计观测资料,分析了该海域上层海洋(30~500 dbar)的湍流混合空间分布特征。结果显示,湍动能耗散率(ε)和湍扩散系数(K_(ρ))分布呈现明显的区域性特征,与当地的水团和环流分布密切相关。鲍威尔海盆边缘-南奥克尼海台区的表层水体因海冰融水的加入而层化加强,湍流混合受到抑制,其混合水平在整个调查海域中最弱,K_(ρ)普遍小于10^(-4)m^(2)×s^(-1);布兰斯菲尔德海峡区的水团主要由邻近海域的水团变性组成,上层海洋的层结不稳定,K_(ρ)平均值约为1.2×10^(-4)m^(2)×s^(-1);埃斯佩里兹海槽区是斯科舍海与威德尔海水交换的主要通道,在复杂流场与粗糙地形的共同作用下,水体混合剧烈,整个上层剖面的K_(ρ)基本在3.2×10^(-4)~3.2×10–3 m^(2)×s^(-1)之间,强混合维持了该海域相对均匀的温度和盐度垂向结构;斯科舍海南部陆坡区存在不同温盐性质水体的交汇入侵,引起混合增强,K_(ρ)约1.6×10^(-4)m^(2)×s^(-1)。本次观测结果表明,海水层化状态、垂向剪切流不稳定和水团交界处的热盐入侵对南大洋上层海洋湍流混合空间分布有重要影响。