From the University of Washington
Russian river water unexpected culprit behind Arctic freshening near US, Canada
A hemisphere-wide phenomenon – and not just regional forces – has caused record-breaking amounts of freshwater to accumulate in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea.
Freshwater Pathway
Frigid freshwater flowing into the Arctic Ocean from three of Russia’s mighty rivers was diverted hundreds of miles to a completely different part of the ocean in response to a decades-long shift in atmospheric pressure associated with the phenomenon called the Arctic Oscillation, according to findings published in the Jan. 5 issue of Nature.
The new findings show that a low pressure pattern created by the Arctic Oscillation from 2005 to 2008 drew Russian river water away from the Eurasian Basin, between Russia and Greenland, and into the Beaufort Sea, a part of the Canada Basin bordered by the United States and Canada. It was like adding 10 feet (3 meters) of freshwater over the central part of the Beaufort Sea.
“Knowing the pathways of freshwater in the upper ocean is important to understanding global climate because of freshwater’s role in protecting sea ice – it can help create a barrier between the ice and warmer ocean water below – and its role in global ocean circulation. Too much freshwater exiting the Arctic would inhibit the interplay of cold water from the poles and warm water from the tropics,” said Jamie Morison, an oceanographer with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory and lead author of the Nature paper.
Morison and his co-authors from the UW and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are the first to detect this freshwater pathway and its connection to the Arctic Oscillation. The work is based on water samples gathered in the field combined with satellite oceanography possible for the first time with data from NASA satellites known as ICESat and GRACE.
“Changes in the volume and extent of Arctic sea ice in recent years have focused attention on the impacts of melting ice,” said co-author Ron Kwok, senior research scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “The combined GRACE and ICESat data allow us to now examine the impacts of widespread changes in ocean circulation.”
Freshwater Increases, Decreases
Taken as a whole, the salinity of the Arctic Ocean is similar to the past, but the change in the freshwater pathway means the Eurasian Basin has gotten more saline while the Canada Basin has gotten fresher.
“The freshening on the Canadian side of the Arctic over the last few years represents a redistribution of freshwater, there does not seem to be a net freshening of the ocean,” Kwok said.
In the Eurasian Basin, the change means less freshwater enters the layer known as the cold halocline and could be contributing to declines in ice in that part of the Arctic, Morison said. The cold halocline normally sits like a barrier between ice and warm water that comes into the Arctic from the Atlantic Ocean. Without salt the icy cold freshwater is lighter, which is why it is able to float over the warm water.
In the Beaufort Sea, the water is the freshest it’s been in 50 years of record keeping, he said. The new findings show that only a tiny fraction is from melting ice and the vast majority is Eurasian river water.
The Beaufort Sea stores a significant amount of freshwater from a number of sources, especially when an atmospheric condition known as the Beaufort High causes winds to spin the water in a clockwise gyre. When the winds are weaker or spin in the opposite direction, freshwater is released back into the rest of the Arctic Ocean, and from there to the world’s oceans. Some scientists have said a strengthening of the Beaufort High is the primary cause of freshening, but the paper says salinity began to decline in the early 1990s, a time when the Beaufort High relaxed and the Arctic Oscillation increased.
“We discovered a pathway that allows freshwater to feed the Beaufort gyre,” Kwok said. “The Beaufort High is important but so are the broader-scale effects of the Arctic Oscillation.”
“A number of people have come up with ways of looking at regional forces at work in the Arctic,” Morison said, “To better understand changes in sea ice and the Arctic overall we need to look more broadly at the hemispherewide Arctic Oscillation, its effects on circulation of the Arctic Ocean and how global warming might enhance those effects.”
In coming years if the Arctic Oscillation stops perpetuating that low pressure, the freshwater pathway should switch back.
Morison and the co-authors argue that, compared to prior years, the Arctic Oscillation has been in its current state for the last 20 years. For example, the changes detected in response to the Arctic Oscillation between 2005 and 2008 are very similar to freshening seen in the early 1990s, Morison said.
Discerning the track of freshwater from Eurasian rivers would have been impossible without the ICESat and GRACE satellites, Kwok and Morison agree. With satellite measurements of ocean height and bottom pressures, the researchers could separate the changes in mass from changes in density – or freshwater content – of the water column.
“To me it’s pretty spectacular that you have these satellites zipping around hundreds of kilometers above the Earth and they give us a number about salinity that’s very close to what we get from lowering little sampling bottles into the ocean,” Morison said.
Other co-authors are Cecilia Peralta-Ferriz with the UW’s School of Oceanography and Matt Alkire, Ignatius Rigor, Roger Andersen and Mike Steele, all with the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
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Arctic (or North Atlantic) Oscillation goes in 40-year cycle. You remember those warm European winters before WWI? Neither me, but they did exist.
http://notrickszone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/NAO_CETw-copy-2.gif
http://notrickszone.com/2010/11/28/lesson-learned-predicting-the-european-climate-from-the-cet-record/
This freshwater sloshing isn’t in the models so it doesn’t exist.
Quit writing about it. The only thing happening at the poles
is disastrous melting by eeville Satanic Gasses,
so all else must be ignored or censored away.
Damn those Ruskies
The decline in Arctic sea ice has always been the alarmist’s ace in the hole, providing endless propaganda opportunities for ominous declarations about its impending disappearance. The decline has been obvious but I have always felt that it could be almost entirely accounted for by changes in circulation and winds that began at the end of the 80s with the change in the AO, as noted by Rigor and Wallace 2004
http://iabp.apl.washington.edu/research_seaiceageextent.html
This work adds more support to my suspicions and strengthens the argument that almost no resort to anything “anthropogenic” is required to explain the observed loss of ice.
This freshwater infusion is causing acidification of the arctic.
/sarc off
They use the term “freshening”, but it’s really acidification.
Is the implication that freshwater currents are partly behind the arctic ice melting? Obviously a study like this couldn’t just say that because it would go against the party line, but reading between the lines it does suggest that. It would have been good if they had included ice extents in the charts just so we could be sure.
Arctic Sea surface salinity:-
http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/hycomARC/navo/arcticsssnowcast.gif
http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/hycomARC/arctic.html
This paper might help me to understand the above.
Interstellar Bill says:
January 4, 2012 at 12:51 pm
It’s the radiative forcing!
/sarc.
Siberian hydrology is an important factor in understanding what is happening with the Arctic. My view is somewhat different to one in the paper.
There has been rapid change in the geomagnetic map of the northern hemisphere, rapid fall in the Hudson Bay and more gradual rise in the Siberian branch:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/AT-GMF.gif
The polar storm clouds are eclectically charged entities (lightning) and carried by the polar jet-stream their trajectories are guided by strong magnetic field in the polar areas. This has meant that the strongest concentration of precipitation would end up in the central Siberia, having an important rise in the hydrology levels of the area as I show here:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/SHL.htm
Correct my understanding if you will, but, if the freshwater is above the saline seawater and next to the bottom of the ice, wouldn’t it encourage more ice formation? If seawater’s freezing point is about 28.4 degs F and obviously freshwater is 32 degs F, wouldn’t the freshwater close to the ice be more likely to form new ice, and/or thicken, than the displaced seawater?
Just need some clarification.
Nature is still publishing studies that have to do with natural phenomena?
Funny…given Anthony Watt’s location, I read the title to mean the “Russian River” in Nothern CA. Needless to say, I was surprised that this river was so important to global climate.
“M.A.Vukcevic says”
“The polar storm clouds are eclectically charged entities (lightning) and carried by the polar jet-stream their trajectories are guided by strong magnetic field in the polar areas. This has meant that the strongest concentration of precipitation would end up in the central Siberia, having an important rise in the hydrology levels of the area as I show here:
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/SHL.htm”
Imagine that….changes in the earth’s magnetic field (the highest form of energy known to man – the only force which can contain plasma) linked to cloud movement/concentration, linked to precipitation in Siberia, linked to changes in fresh water output into the Arctic, linked to changes in Arctic ice conditions, and, evidently ultimately Arctic temperature…throw in some solar cycles
So, exactly where does man’s influence fit into this observation?
You know, it just keeps getting better and better, day by day, doesn’t it?
I believe the idea is during summer, not winter. Yes, fresh water would tend to freeze sooner but there isn’t any freezing going on in the summer. The colder fresh water would act as a sort of “cooler” to keep the ice away from the warmer salt water and reduce its rate of summer melt. The saltier Arctic on the Europe side would tend to keep water from the Gulf Stream on the surface longer, too. The warmer waters from that stream stay on the surface until evaporation causes both cooling and a rise in salinity until it is saltier than the surrounding water and then it sinks. If the surrounding water is salter, this tropical water stays on the surface longer and keeps Northern Europe more ice free. That’s one reason why it is suspected that outbursts from gigantic glacial melt lakes into the Arctic are responsible for such events as the Younger Dryas and the 8.2ky event. This fresh water would have diluted the gulf water preventing it from sinking and shutting down the “conveyor belt”.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. How much BS is pumped into the electronic atmosphere each day? Who cares? Ignore it, or wear rubber waders.
Anthony
And I thought it was the Russian River in California doing some teleconnecting! (is the Russian River the one that that goes through Chico?)
40 shades
got to admire the sensitivity of satellites that can determine mass to that scale. Great job to whoever is responsible!
There is nothing new about this issue of changing salinity of the Arctic Ocean because of changes in freshwater ingress. The Arctic Ocean is essentially a closed basin with only one relatively deep channel through the East Greenland Channel. (This channel was used by Soviet submarines to transit in and out of the North Atlantic undetected by Nato forces). Average salinity of the Arctic Ocean is the lowest for all the oceans at 30,000ppm compared to global average of 34,000 ppm. This is due to freshwater input but also low rates of evaporation and ice cover. The three Russian Rivers, the Ob, the Yenisei and the Lena coupled with the Mackenzie contribute most of the freshwater flowing into the ocean – the Mackenzie contributes about 12%.
The issue of changing conditions of freshwater flows arose during the Cold War era because of Soviet diversions and interconnection of major river systems. Major changes were on the Don river which was interconnected with the Volga so they could transport submarines from the Caspian to the port at Archangel on the Arctic coast. There were also diversion schemes on the Ob, which saw the most, the Yenisei and some for the Lena partly because of the desire to open up and irrigate the “Virgin Lands” by Khrushchev. Some of the concern was triggered by the Aral Sea drying up. They tried to offset this with various schemes including dropping soot on Himalayan glaciers to increase melt and river flow.
http://www.fragilecologies.com/oct09_95.html
The concern, expressed at the time by Soviet as well as other scientists, was that an increased salinity due to less freshwater inflow would reduce the arctic ice and trigger major climate change. As I recall it was Brezhnev who ordered a delay and investigation, then Gorbachev, that illustrious member of the Club of Rome, said to heck with the consequences go ahead. Of course none of this stopped the Soviets proposing a dam across the Bering Straits to prevent outflow of cold Arctic water that would result in a warmer north Pacific and then a warmer belt around the globe back to the Soviet Union.
OT
Trepidation
24(1085) : I don’t think ‘uncertainties’ is quite the right word
here. Input emissions scenarios, which are scenarios in the
strict sense of the word, do not directly address uncertainty
issues (although they can, with some trepidation and a not-
inconsiderable amount of ingenuity, be used to define
uncertainties). By the way, as far as I can see, the only
scenario development method/software that does address the
input and uncertainty issues is MAGICC/SCENGEN.
http://www.ecowho.com/foia.php?search=trepidation
@DJ
“They use the term “freshening”, but it’s really acidification.”
NO!! .. its “neutralisation”
Making that particular area less “basic”.. or maybe we should use the words less CAUSTIC, to keep up with the Joneses.
Again, probably way better than the oceans getting more caustic. (marine biologists?)
“The colder fresh water would act as a sort of “cooler” to keep the ice away from the warmer salt water and reduce its rate of summer melt.”
Conversely is there an overlap, latency, in the conversion of the freshwater, in the early winter, to high salinity that would kick-start, so to say, early ice formation? The point being, if there is a high abundance of Siberian snowpack available to the Russian River, does this, as you point out, not only retard summer ice melt, but also, kick-start the winter ice formation, in other words?
ps. Does anyone have any information on how much last years massive rainstorms and stormwater runoff along the Queensland coast would have “Freshened” the waters of the Great Barrier Reef ? Rainwater is generally slightly acid, and the amount of run-off to the oceans was quite substantial.
There are reports of the pH changing from 8.2 to 8.1 (of course blamed on CO2), but I can’t find any records of when these reading were taken.
Amazing GRACE ?
Can differentiate salt vs. fresh water, via gravity ?
It must be a very sensitive and well calibrated experiment they’re running
Or was it just a plug for the “Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment”.
Sorry, but I’m skeptical.
.
“The work is based on water samples gathered in the field ….”
Never mind what comes after that quote; when I read that actual, real physical measurements had been taken, I started to pay attention because that is how SCIENCE is done.
And the results aren’t too shabby, either.
Oh Noes! It’s worse then we thought! Start panicking!
Can I have my grant now?