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Björk et al. 2002
Björk, G., Söderkvist, J., Winsor, P., Nikolopoulos, A. and Steele, M. (2002). Return of the cold halocline layer to the Amundsen Basin of the Arctic Ocean: Implications for the sea ice mass balance. Geophysical Research Letters 29: doi: 10.1029/2001GL014157. issn: 0094-8276.

CTD measurements from the Arctic Ocean 2001 expedition reveal that the cold halocline layer (CHL) has returned to the Amundsen Basin at a position close to that found during the Oden'91 expedition. River water from the Siberian shelves formed a strong freshwater front in the Amundsen Basin, extending from the Gakkel Ridge to the Lomonosov Ridge. Furthermore, we show from model computations that the presence of a CHL may increase winter sea ice growth by 0.25 m over one season compared to a case with a non-existing CHL due to increased vertical heat flux from the warm Atlantic water. The difference in sea ice growth is due to a much shallower winter convection with a CHL present, which is not able to reach into the warm Atlantic layer, resulting in a considerably smaller oceanic heat flux.

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Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, General, Arctic and Antarctic oceanography, Oceanography, Physical, Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes, Oceanography, Physical, Hydrography, Oceanography, General, Numerical modeling
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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