Aagaard Knut

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Aagaard
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Knut
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  • Preprint
    Trajectory shifts in the Arctic and Subarctic freshwater cycle
    ( 2006-06-22) Peterson, Bruce J. ; McClelland, James W. ; Curry, Ruth G. ; Holmes, Robert M. ; Walsh, John E. ; Aagaard, Knut
    Manifold changes in the freshwater cycle of high-latitude lands and oceans have been reported in the past few years. A synthesis of these changes in sources of freshwater and in ocean freshwater storage illustrates the complementary and synoptic temporal pattern and magnitude of these changes over the past 50 years. Increasing river discharge anomalies and excess net precipitation on the ocean contributed ~20,000 km3 of fresh water to the Arctic and high latitude North Atlantic oceans from lows in the 1960s to highs in the 1990s. Sea ice attrition provided another ~15,000 km3, and glacial melt added ~2000 km3. The sum of anomalous inputs from these freshwater sources matched the amount and rate at which fresh water accumulated in the North Atlantic during much of the period from 1965 through 1995. The changes in freshwater inputs and ocean storage occurred in conjunction with the amplifying North Atlantic Oscillation and rising air temperatures. Fresh water may now be accumulating in the Arctic Ocean and will likely be exported southward if and when the North Atlantic Oscillation enters into a new high phase.
  • Article
    The St. Lawrence polynya and the Bering shelf circulation : new observations and a model comparison
    (American Geophysical Union, 2006-09-19) Danielson, Seth L. ; Aagaard, Knut ; Weingartner, Thomas J. ; Martin, S. ; Winsor, Peter ; Gawarkiewicz, Glen G. ; Quadfasel, Detlef R.
    Using 14 year-long instrumented moorings deployed south of St. Lawrence Island, along with oceanographic drifters, we investigate the circulation over the central Bering shelf and the role of polynyas in forming and disseminating saline waters over the shelf. We focus also on evaluating the Gawarkiewicz and Chapman [1995] model of eddy production within coastal polynyas. Principal results include: 1) The northern central shelf near-surface waters exhibit westward flow carrying low-salinity waters from the Alaskan coast in fall and early winter, with consequences for water mass formation and biological production. 2) Within the St. Lawrence polynya, the freshening effect of winter advection is about half as large as the salting effect of surface brine flux resulting from freezing. 3) Brine production over the Bering shelf occurs primarily offshore, rather than within coastal polynyas, even though ice production per unit area is much larger within the polynyas. 4) We find little evidence for the geostrophic flow adjustment predicted by recent polynya models. 5) In contrast to the theoretical prediction that dense water from the polynya is carried offshore by eddies, we find negligible cross-shelf eddy density fluxes within and surrounding the polynya and very low levels of eddy energy that decreased from fall to winter, even though dense water accumulated within the polynya and large cross-shore density gradients developed. 6) It is possible that dense polynya water was advected downstream of our array before appreciable eddy fluxes materialized.