Where is arctic ocean

Ocean life Much of the Arctic Ocean's complex life can only be seen by underwater explorers who dive through holes in thick sea ice.

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As a result, the water cools and becomes heavier, convecting downwards and being carried back towards the tropics by deep currents the North Atlantic Drift Current, for example. All this means that the mass of oceanic water warms the climate in colder regions and lowers temperatures in tropical climes.

Any variation in the ocean currents will have an impact on the climate. The Arctic Ocean is one of the least studied in the world. Although polar, it is totally different from the Antarctic Ocean in many aspects: its wide continental platforms, its active opening dorsal , its extension to the pole, its large inflow of fresh water by the rivers, its own ice dynamics … Water circulation, freeze-up and thaw processes are still very hypothetical. Modeling of the Arctic Ocean on computer poses serious problems; in particular, small scale phenomena are poorly known.

The Sun, much bigger but also much further away, exerts enough attraction to lift it another 20 cm or so. The rest of the rise is the result of local amplification due to the shape of the coastline or the way the seabed shelves. The rise and fall of the tides generate currents or tidal streams that can be very strong, such as the rushing current between Barents and Edge Islands. When these tidal streams encounter the continental slope to the north of the Eurasian landmass, they set up a swirling current that can generate a vortex that reaches down to the seabed.

There are tides in the middle of the ocean too, or course, but unless there is an island there, you see nothing, because all ships rise along with the tide. Scientists measure the tides in mid-ocean by lowering to the seabed instruments that measure sea depth via the pressure of the water column. This can give an accurate depth to within 1 centimetre. As the tides rise and fall, the tidal currents swirl to and fro twice a day. Scientists can map the direction and strength of their flow hour by hour.

The bottoms of the Nordic sills are marked by currents…. These differences in density — also linked to the higher pressure at greater depths — can seem insignificant a few dozen kg per ton or cu. Physicists can monitor these flows by measuring temperature and salinity. This means that polar surface water with a density of 1. Then, once an ice layer has formed, it blocks the ocean-atmosphere heat exchange, and thus stops the formation of deep ocean waters.

Historic hydrographic data Steele et al. Figure 3: Schematic of Pacific Water Circulation. Dashed straight black arrows from Russia to Fram Strait indicate extremes of the Transpolar Drift of sea-ice under different Arctic Oscillation conditions see e.

Dashed circle with arrows indicates anticyclonic circulation of sea-ice and presumably Pacific Waters in the Beaufort Gyre. Dark grey arrows indicate possible pathways of Pacific Waters into the Arctic and along the Beaufort Slope.

Note arrows are schematic only. The assumption that potential vorticity PV conservation constrains PW to flow along the Beaufort slope neglects important surface and bottom friction terms; indeed, only about one-third of the PW inflow is observed along the Beaufort slope Nikolopoulos et al.

Pacific Waters exit the Arctic via the Fram Strait and the Canadian Archipelago, their high nutrients fueling ecosystems in the polynyas of the Archipelago Tremblay et al. The interior gyres are generally quiescent and sparsely populated with some deep eddies Aagaard et al.

Figure 4: Schematic of Atlantic Water Circulation. Beyond this, thinner, lighter arrows indicate more uncertainty about the flow. Atlantic Waters flow around the Chukchi Borderland and are believed to continue cyclonically along the Beaufort slope, although observations are sparse pink arrows Aagaard Within the Beaufort Gyre, an anticyclonic flow may exist in the same sense as the sea-ice gyre above, opposing the AOBC flowing cyclonically along the slope Newton and Coachman Squiggly lines extending from the Chukchi Borderland into the basin indicate transfer of waters from the AOBC to the interior by double diffusive processes McLaughlin et al.

Recent observations suggest significant TS and energy seasonality Dmitrenko et al. The physics of the AOBC are still debated, although proposed mechanisms relate generally to conservation of potential vorticity PV.

PV has similarities to angular momentum. It depends on the rotation of the water, including rotation from the spinning earth, and the thickness of the layer considered. For details, see oceanography text books.

These layers have a vertical dimension of m, but show coherence over the entire Arctic. Aagaard, K. Barnes, D. Schell and E. Reimnitz, pp. Carmack, The role of sea ice and other fresh water in the Arctic circulation, J. Coachman, and E. Andersen, J. Swift, and J. Johnson, A large eddy in the central Arctic Ocean, Geophys.

Woodgate, C. Lee, H. Melling, and M. Karcher, A synthesis of exchanges through the main oceanic gateways to the Arctic Ocean, Oceanography 24 , Carmack, E. Aagaard, J. Swift, R. Perkin, F. McLaughlin, R. Macdonald, and E. Imberger, pp. D'Asaro, E. Dmitrenko, I. Fahrbach, E. Meincke, S. Osterhus, G. Rohardt, U. Schauer, V. Tverberg, and J. Falck, E. Kattner, and G. Holloway, G. Wang, Representing eddy stress in an Arctic Ocean model, J.

Jackson, J. Carmack, F. McLaughlin, S. Allen, and R. Ingram, Identification, characterization, and change of the near-surface temperature maximum in the Canada Basin, , J. Jakobsson, M. Norman, J. Woodward, R. MacNab, and B. Coakley, New grid of Arctic bathymetry aids scientists and map makers, Eos Trans.

Jones, E. Anderson, and J. Distribution of Atlantic and Pacific waters in the upper Arctic Ocean: implications for circulation, Geophys. Swift, L. Anderson, M. Lipizer, G. Civitarese, K. Falkner, G. Kattner, and F. Karcher, M. Kauker, R. Gerdes, E. Hunke, and J. Killworth, P. Kwok, R. Lewis, E. Lozier, M. McLaughlin, F. Carmack, R. Macdonald, A. Weaver, and J. Macdonald, and J. Carmack, W.

Williams, S. Zimmermann, K. Shimada, and M. Itoh, Joint effects of boundary currents and thermohaline intrusions on the warming of Atlantic water in the Canada Basin, , J. Melling, H. Falkner, R. Woodgate, S. Prinsenberg, A.

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Nghiem, S. Rigor, D. Perovich, P. Clemente-Colon, J. Weatherly, and G. Neumann, Rapid reduction of Arctic perennial sea ice, Geophys.