The Role of Anticyclonic Eddies in the Arctic Halocline

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Timmermans 0713837 WHOI The halocline of the Arctic Ocean tends to isolate the sea ice on the surface of the ocean from the heat carried into the ocean with flows of warm Atlantic Water. Changes in the structure or persistence of this halocline will, thus, have an important influence on the rate of change of sea ice cover in the Arctic and, consequently, global climate. How this halocline is maintained is an open question, but one theory strongly implicates the lateral flux of cold waters, in the form of eddies, from the shelves surrounding the Arctic Ocean. Funds are provided to investigate the origin, dynamics, and role in the halocline of the large number of shallow eddies recently observed in the Arctic Ocean's Canada Basin. The principal investigators intend to accomplish this by analysis of recent measurements, dynamical process studies, and analysis of historical data in the context of the new measurements. Data from the newly developed Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) makes possible a comprehensive analysis of the eddies. An array of ITPs currently is returning sustained observations of upper-ocean temperature and salinity from a substantial region of the Canada Basin over all seasons. The preliminary analysis of these data has shown eddies to be a prevalent feature of the Canada Basin halocline that can be well-resolved by the high-resolution ITP sampling.