Toward new mass and heat budgets for the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

Recent current measurements are incorporated into new heat and mass budgets for the Arctic Ocean. These budgets demonstrate the overwhelming importance of advection by the West Spitsbergen Current, which in 1971–1972 transported 16.3×109 kcal cm−2 s−1 into the Arctic Ocean. Partially on the basis of the heat budget, we suggest that there is a large heat loss to the atmosphere in the southwestern Eurasian basin, in excess of 20 kcal cm−2 yr−1. Annual mean transport in the West Spitsbergen Current could easily vary by 35% and might constitute a significant perturbation on the Arctic heat budget. The mass budgets point toward the general ineffectiveness of the Arctic Ocean in transforming subsurface water masses, and they also indicate a large shear between the ice and the upper layer of the East Greenland Current.