AWI’s Polar 5 Aircraft Measures Arctic Sea Ice Thickness North of Greenland
23.08.2010 - Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Arctic
Scientists are worried as the sea ice over the Arctic Ocean reaches its annual minimum in September. While forecasts suggest that the extent is unlikely to hit another all-time low, sea ice physicists at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) are concerned about the long-term equilibrium in the Arctic Ocean. In order to determine the ice export from the Arctic Ocean and its affect on the ocean’s long-term salinity, they have embarked on a one-week campaign aboard the research aircraft Polar 5.
With the results of this survey, the scientists should be able to provide a better estimate of the actual amount of freshwater carried out of the Arctic Ocean through the ice. The 3000 km³ of ice drift out of the Arctic Ocean every year exports freshwater that reaches the Arctic Ocean via rivers and precipitation. In doing so, the ocean maintains its salinity in the long run. Yet, as global warming is more pronounced in the Arctic, the thinner ice stores and exports less freshwater, while the salinity of the Arctic Ocean declines. These changes, the scientists say, is likely to influence all living things that have adapted to the local conditions and impact current patterns of global ocean circulation and as a consequence meridional heat transport.
