Warm Water Surging Into Arctic
Pastor Dale Morgan
IARC Scientists Document Warm Water Surging Into Arctic*
Fairbanks AK (SPX) Sep 27, 2006
Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic
Research Center this fall documented that recent surges of warm water
from the North Atlantic Ocean continue to pulse into the Arctic Ocean
and are moving toward Alaska and the Canadian Basin. Scientists made the
observations this fall during an oceanographic cruise aboard the Russian
icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn as part of the Nansen and Amundsen Basins
Observational Systems program.
Information gathered by the NABOS program, as well as from other
international programs, has shown that, during the last decade, the
movement of warm water into the Arctic Ocean has increased. And the
readings from this fall's cruise show unprecedented warmth in some areas.
"The large area of the Arctic Ocean promises to become much warmer,"
said Igor Polyakov, NABOS principal investigator and a research
professor at IARC.
The readings come from observational moorings, which are
instrument-bearing buoys that are anchored to the ocean floor and float
below the surface of the ocean. These instruments first detected a surge
of anomalous warm water, at mid-ocean depths of about 150 to 800 meters
below the surface, in February of 2004 on the continental slope of the
Laptev Sea, Polyakov said. "What we found this year was one of our
eastern moorings also showed a warming signal."
That finding indicates that the warm water is moving further and further
into the Arctic, he said, which could increase the overall temperature
of the Arctic Ocean. While the causes of the influx of warm water will
require further study, the observations from the NABOS project suggest
that the Arctic Ocean is moving toward a warmer state, a change that
could have global implications.
Ocean temperature in the Arctic is important because it may affect the
amount of sea ice in the region. Scientists believe that arctic sea ice
cover plays a major role in the global climate, as ice reflects more of
the sun's heat than open water.
The NABOS project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and the National Science Foundation and is a
collaboration among six nations. It is one of many UAF projects that
will contribute to the international efforts of the upcoming
International Polar Year. IPY is a two-year event, slated to begin in
March 2007, which will focus research efforts and public attention on
the Earth's polar regions. UAF is among a handful of institutions
worldwide that is ideally situated to participate in IPY research,
education and outreach.