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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 25, NO. 10, PAGES 1729–1732, 1998

Freshening of the Upper Ocean in the Arctic: Is Perennial Sea Ice Disappearing?

Miles G. McPhee

McPhee Research Company, 450 Clover Springs Road, Naches, WA 98937. (email: miles@wolfenet.com)

Timothy P. Stanton

Department of Oceanography, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 94305. (email: stanton@oc.nps.navy.mil)

James H. Morison

Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105. (email: morison@apl.washington.edu)

Douglas G. Martinson

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964. (email: dgm@ldeo.columbia.edu). LDEO Contribution 5778.

Abstract

During the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) deployment in October, 1997, multiyear ice near the center of the Beaufort Gyre was anomalously thin. The upper ocean was both warmer and less saline than in previous years. The salinity deficit in the upper 100 m, compared with the same region during the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX) in 1975, is equivalent to surface input of about 2.4 m of fresh water. Heat content has increased by 67 MJ m⁻². During AIDJEX the change in salinity over the melt season implied melt equivalent to about 0.8 m of fresh water. As much as 2 m of freshwater input may have occurred during the 1997 summer, possibly resulting from decreased ice concentration from changes in atmospheric circulation early in the summer , in the classic albedo-feedback scenario. Unchecked, the pattern could lead to a significantly different sea-ice regime in the central Arctic.

Received 18 December 1997; accepted 27 February 1998.

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Citation: McPhee, M. G., T. P. Stanton, J. H. Morison, and D. G. Martinson (1998), Freshening of the Upper Ocean in the Arctic: Is Perennial Sea Ice Disappearing?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25(10), 1729–1732.

Copyright 1998 by the American Geophysical Union.