Warming in Arctic intermediate and deep waters around Chukchi Plateau and its adjacent regions in 1999

Zhao, JP Gao, GP Jiao, YT

SCIENCE IN CHINA SERIES D-EARTH SCIENCES 48:8 1312-1320

Based on the data measured during Arctic scientific expedition of China in 1999, the characteristics of temperature and salinity distributions around the Chukchi Plateau and its adjacent regions have been studied. It was found that the intermediate water with temperature higher than 0.5 degrees C existed in all parts of a 640 km section with a maximum temperature of 0.85 degrees C indicating a strong signal of the warming in Arctic Intermediate Water in 1999. Two important phenomena are described in this paper. First, the temperature of warm water was horizontally nonuniform. In the area of Chukchi Plateau, the temperature was higher, the layer of warm water was thicker and the depth of the warm water core was shallower than those in the area of continental slope. The horizontal nonuniformity of the temperature distribution of warming water implies that the upward heat flux should also be nonuniform, thus exerting different effects on sea ice thickness, ice extent, and air-sea heat exchange. The mechanism to generate higher temperature in the plateau region was the bypassing of current around the plateau area caused by the special local topography, which restricted water exchange across the plateau and conserved heat in the water body. Second, the deep water down to 1400 m was also warming with a temperature increase of 0.2 degrees C. The warming in deep water reflects the occurrence of complicated heat redistribution processes in the intermediate water, which altered the thermal structure in the upper 1400 m. The warming data embody the obvious impact of global climate change on the Arctic Ocean and further studies are wanted.

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