AUTHOR=Pnyushkov A. V. , Polyakov I. V. , Alekseev G. V. , Ashik I. M. , Baumann T. M. , Carmack E. C. , Ivanov V. V. , Rember R. 

TITLE=A Steady Regime of Volume and Heat Transports in the Eastern Arctic Ocean in the Early 21st Century

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.705608

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.705608

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Mooring observations in the eastern Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean showed that mean 2013-2018 along-slope volume and heat (calculated relative to the freezing temperature) transports in the upper 800 m were 4.8±0.1 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3/s) and 34.8±0.6 TW, respectively. Volume and heat transports within the Atlantic Water (AW) layer (~150-800 m) in 2013-2018 lacked significant temporal shifts at annual and longer time scales: averaged over the two periods of mooring deployment in 2013-2015 and 2015-2018, volume transports were 3.1±0.1 Sv, while AW heat transports were 31.3±1.0 TW and 34.8±0.8 TW. Moreover, the reconstructed AW volume transports over longer, 2003-2018, period of time showed strong interannual variations but lacked a statistically significant trend. However, we found a weak positive trend of 0.08±0.07 Sv/year in the barotropic AW volume transport estimated using dynamic ocean topography (DOT) measurements in 2003-2014 – the longest period spanned by the DOT dataset. Vertical coherence of 2013-2018 transports in the halocline (70-140 m) and AW (~150-800 m) layers was high, suggesting the essential role of the barotropic forcing in constraining along-slope transports. Quantitative estimates of transports and their variability discussed in this study help identify the role of atlantification in critical changes of the eastern Arctic Ocean.