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In winter, this relatively warm water, even though covered by the polar ice pack, keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic. In summer, the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might ...
The cold freshwater therefore floats on top and the halocline across which mixing tends to be weak [6] even under ice free conditions [7] and therefore protects the surface from the heat in the Atlantic water. [8] Under the Atlantic water layer is a deep layer of Arctic bottom water extending to the bottom of the ocean.
As such, the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water, which can never have a temperature below −2 °C (28 °F). In winter, this relatively warm water, even though covered by the polar ice pack , keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere , and it is also part of the reason that ...
Warm water from the south is more saline ('halocline') because of the higher evaporation rate in the tropical zone. The warm saline water forms the upper layer of the ocean ('thermocline'), but when this layer cools down, the density of the salty water increases, making it sink into the deep. This is an important part of the motor of the AMOC ...
Feedbacks associated with sea ice and snow cover are widely cited as one of the principal causes of terrestrial polar amplification. [12] [13] [14] These feedbacks are particularly noted in local polar amplification, [15] although recent work has shown that the lapse rate feedback is likely equally important to the ice-albedo feedback for Arctic amplification. [16]
The EGC is composed of a mixture of three distinct water masses.The water masses are Polar Water, Atlantic Water, and Deep Water. These water masses can be clearly seen throughout the EGC's tract southward, however, the upper layer water masses do change some due to atmospheric interaction along with inflow from other water sources in the Nordic Seas.
Here's a breakdown of how and why it all happens. But the science behind a blue sky isn't that easy. For starters, it involves something called the Rayleigh effect, or Rayleigh scattering.
The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean, where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time.