The Barents Sea warms up from behind

Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research: The temperature of the subsurface Atlantic Water in the northern Barents Sea increased rapidly during the late 1990s. A recent study by the Institute of Marine Research, the University of Bergen and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in Norway shows that the northwest Barents Sea warmed substantially during the last decades. The temperature of the subsurface Atlantic Water in the northern Barents Sea increased rapidly during the late 1990s.

This was partly caused by the general warming of Atlantic Water in the North Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, a regional wind pattern indirectly strengthened a warm deep current that enters the Barents Sea from the north.

A warm deep current enters the Barents Sea from the north. The current is a branch of the Arctic Ocean Boundary Current. The branch enters the Barents Sea below the ice cover and the colder and fresher upper waters (shown in blue). © 2012 Sigrid Lind

The warm deep current enters the Barents Sea from the Arctic Ocean. It flows into the Barents Sea below colder and fresher upper waters. The current is a branch of the Arctic Ocean Boundary Current that carries warm Atlantic Water below the cold surface waters through the Arctic Ocean.

The branch enters the Barents Sea between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land. It carries warm Atlantic Water far into the Barents Sea. On its path through the northern Barents Sea the Atlantic Water gradually mixes with the cold waters above, such that the cold waters are warmed from below.

The cold waters protect the ice cover on the surface from the warm Atlantic Water below. And more importantly, the cold waters protect the ice cover from the massive amount of even warmer Atlantic Water south of the ice edge....

A warm deep current enters the Barents Sea from the north. The current is a branch of the Arctic Ocean Boundary Current. The branch enters the Barents Sea below the ice cover and the colder and fresher upper waters (shown in blue). © 2012 Sigrid Lind