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    The Arctic Ocean spices up

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    jpo-d-16-0027%2E1.pdf (1.126Mb)
    Date
    2016-04-05
    Author
    Timmermans, Mary-Louise  Concept link
    Jayne, Steven R.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7981
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-16-0027.1
    DOI
    10.1175/JPO-D-16-0027.1
    Keyword
     Geographic location/entity; Arctic; Circulation/ Dynamics; Ocean dynamics 
    Abstract
    The contemporary Arctic Ocean differs markedly from midlatitude, ice-free, and relatively warm oceans in the context of density-compensating temperature and salinity variations. These variations are invaluable tracers in the midlatitudes, revealing essential fundamental physical processes of the oceans, on scales from millimeters to thousands of kilometers. However, in the cold Arctic Ocean, temperature variations have little effect on density, and a measure of density-compensating variations in temperature and salinity (i.e., spiciness) is not appropriate. In general, temperature is simply a passive tracer, which implies that most of the heat transported in the Arctic Ocean relies entirely on the ocean dynamics determined by the salinity field. It is shown, however, that as the Arctic Ocean warms up, temperature will take on a new role in setting dynamical balances. Under continued warming, there exists the possibility for a regime shift in the mechanisms by which heat is transported in the Arctic Ocean. This may result in a cap on the storage of deep-ocean heat, having profound implications for future predictions of Arctic sea ice.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 (2016): 1277-1284, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-16-0027.1.
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    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 (2016): 1277-1284
     

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