A DECADAL COMPARISON OF THE ARCTIC UPPER OCEAN HEAT CONTENT IN THE BEAUFORT SEA AND TRANSPOLAR DRIFT

Abstract

The Arctic has had a strong response to global climate change expressed through widespread melting of the perennial ice cover in the Canada Basin at an increasing rate. High resolution coupled atmospheric and ocean climate models significantly underestimate this reduction in late summer ice extent. In this study, long term ocean time series observations from ice tethered profilers (ITPs) and autonomous ocean flux buoys (AOFBs) enable the integration of upper ocean temperature structure to make estimates of ocean mixed layer heat content over seasonal time scales. Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) data are used to estimate open water fraction, which is a strong driver of ocean heating in the late summer. A primary hypothesis of this study is that there will be a significant difference in late summer ocean mixed layer heat content between the Beaufort Sea and the more convergent Transpolar Drift. The higher open water fraction increases the amount of solar radiation inputs into the upper ocean in the Beaufort Sea.