Warming and depth convergence of the Arctic Intermediate Water in the Canada Basin during 1985–2006

The warming of the Arctic Intermediate Water （AIW） is studied based on the analyses of hydro- graphic observations in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean during 1985-2006. It is shown that how the anomalously warm AIW spreads in the Canada Basin during the observation time through the analysis of the AIW temperature spatial distribution in different periods. The results indicate that by 2006, the entire Canada Basin has almost been covered by the warming AIW. In order to study interannual variability of the AIW in the Canada Basin, the Canada Basin is divided into five regions according to the bottom topography. From the interannual variation of AIW temperature in each region, it is shown that a cooling period follows after the warming event in upstream regions. At the Chukchi Abyssal Plain and Chukchi Plateau, upstream of the Arctic Circumpolar Boundary Current （ACBC） in the Canada Basin, the AIW temperature reached maximum and then started to fall respectively in 2000 and 2002. However, the AIW in the Canada Abyssal Plain and Beaufort Sea continues to warm monotonically until the year 2006. Furthermore, it is revealed that there is convergence of the AIW depth in the five different regions of the Canada Basin when the AIW warming occurs during observation time. The difference of AIW depth between the five regions of the Canada Basin is getting smaller and smaller, all approaching 410 m in recent years. The results show that depth convergence is related to the variation of AIW potential density in the Canada Basin.

Modeling Arctic Intermediate Water: The effects of Neptune parameterization and horizontal resolution

Arctic Intermediate Water （AIW）, advected from the North Atlantic Ocean, has a potential influence on climate in the Arctic region, but is poorly simulated in coarse resolution models. In this study, a coupled ice-ocean model is used to investigate features of AIW by conducting two sensitivity experiments based on Neptune parameterization and horizontal resolution. The re- suits show that both experiments improve the modeling of temperature profiles in the western Eurasian Basin, mainly as a result of more realistic volume and heat transport through the Fram Strait. Topographical flows are well reproduced using Neptune parame- terization or a finer horizontal resolution. In the eddy-permitting model with relatively higher resolution, the velocity field is more realistic than in the Neptune parameterization model, and complex inflow and outflow belts of barotropic structure are well repro- duced. The findings of this study suggest that increased model resolution, as provided by an eddy-resolving model, is needed to reproduce realistic circulation and thermohaline structure in the Arctic, since the Rossby radius of deformation is only several kilometers in the Arctic Ocean. This paper focuses on the external heat input rather than internal mixing process, and obtains a conclusion that the heat input from the Fram Strait is a main factor to reproduce AIW in the Eurasian Basin successfully, at least for the western part.

An evaluation of the simulations of the Arctic Intermediate Water in climate models and reanalyses

The simulations of the Arctic Intermediate Water in four datasets of climate models and reanalyses, CCSM3, CCSM4, SODA and GLORYS, are analyzed and evaluated. The climatological core temperatures and depths in both CCSM models exhibit deviations over 0.5°C and 200 m from the PHC. SODA reanalysis reproduces relatively reasonable spatial patterns of core temperature and depth, while GLORYS, another reanalysis, shows a remarkable cooling and deepening drift compared with the result at the beginning of the dataset especially in the Eurasian Basin （about 2°C）. The heat contents at the depth of intermediate water in the CCSM models are overestimated with large positive errors nearly twice of that in the PHC. To the contrary, the GLORYS in 2009 show a negative error with a similar magnitude, which means the characteristic of the water mass is totally lost. The circulations in the two reanalyses at the depth of intermediate water are more energetic and realistic than those in the CCSMs, which is attributed to the horizontal eddy-permitting reso-lution. The velocity fields and the transports in the Fram Strait are also investigated. The necessity of finer horizontal resolution is concluded again. The northward volume transports are much larger in the two re-analyses, although they are still weak comparing with mooring observations. Finally, an investigation of the impact of assimilation is done with an evidence of the heat input from assimilation. It is thought to be a reason for the good performance in the SODA, while the GLORYS drifts dramatically without assimilation data in the Arctic Ocean.

Increase in acidifying water in the western Arctic Ocean

Subject Code:D06With the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,a collaborative study by the research groups led by Prof.Chen Liqi(陈立奇)from the Key Laboratory of Global Chang and Marine Atmospheric Chemistry(GCMAC)of State Oceanic Administration of China(SOA),Third Institute