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Connections among ice, runoff and atmospheric forcing in the Beaufort Gyre

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  • During SHEBA, thin ice and freshening of the Arctic Ocean surface in the Beafort Sea led to speculation that perennial sea ice was disappearing [McPhee et al., 1998]. Since 1987, we have collected salinity, δ¹⁸O and Ba profiles near the initial SHEBA site and, in 1997, we ran a section out to SHEBA. Resolving fresh water into runoff and ice melt, we found a large background of Mackenzie River water with exceptional amounts in 1997 explaining much of the freshening at SHEBA. Ice melt went through a dramatic 4-6 m jump in the early 1990s coinciding with the atmospheric pressure field and sea-ice circulation becoming more cyclonic. The increase in sea-ice melt appears to be a thermal and mechanical response to a circulation regime shift. Should atmospheric circulation revert to the more anticyclonic mode, ice conditions can also be expected to revert although not necessarily to previous conditions.
  • Copyrighted by the American Geophysical Union.
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  • Macdonald, R. W., Carmack, E. C., McLaughlin, F. A., Falkner, K. Kenison and Swift, J. H., 1999, Connections among ice, runoff and atmospheric forcing in the Beaufort Gyre: Geophys. Res. Lett., v. 26, p. 2,223-2,226.
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  • 26
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  • 15
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