Abstract
Through both atmospheric and oceanic circulation, heat is transferred between the equator and the poles. Possible ways in which the Arctic ecological systems can be affected by warmer temperatures include: changes in amount and duration of snow and ice cover; frequency and extent of spring floods; changes in the ratio of precipitation minus evapotranspiration; amounts of water transport from lakes and rivers from snow and permafrost melting; and a decrease in frozen precipitation. A key component in transferring heat is through freshwater exchange in and out of the Arctic. Hence, accurate mapping freshwater fluxes and potentially its changes with time is vital to describe the heat transfer and its possible temporal changes.
Our results demonstrate how ESA’s Earth Observation data together with in-situ measurements can be used to improve the mapping of the major Arctic Ocean freshwater fluxes. In this paper, we outline how four of the five major freshwater fluxes can be determined using present day Earth Observation data exclusively. These are: discharge from rivers; inflow through ice and melt run off; outflow of freshwater in sea ice; and in/outflow of freshwater through ocean currents. We subsequently present key finding and estimates of these four freshwater fluxes and compare our results with estimates based on in-situ data provided through previous studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andersen OB, Piccioni G (2016) Recent arctic sea level variations from satellites. Front Marine Sci 3:76. journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2016.00076, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00076
Armitage TWK, Bacon S, Ridout AL, Thomas SF, Aksenov Y, Wingham DJ (2016) Arctic Sea surface height variability and change from satellite radar altimetry and GRACE, 2003–2014. J Geophys Res Oceans 121:4303–4322. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JC011579
Bøssing Christensen O, Drews M, Hesselbjerg Christensen J, Dethloff K, Ketelsen K, Hebestadt I, Rinke A (2007) The HIRHAM Regional Climate Model. Version 5 (beta). Danish Climate Centre, Danish Meteorological Institute. Denmark. Danish Meteorological Institute. Technical Report, No. 06-17
Carmack EC, Yamamoto-Kawai M, Haine TWN, Bacon S, Bluhm BA, Lique C, Melling H, Polyakov IV, Straneo F, Timmermans M-L, Williams WJ (2016) Freshwater and its role in the Arctic marine system: sources, disposition, storage, export, and physical and biogeochemical consequences in the Arctic and global oceans. JGR Biogeosci 121(3):675–717. https://doi.org/10.1002/.JG003140
Cherniawsky JY, Crawford WR, Nikitin OP, Carmack EC (2005) Bering Strait transports from satellite altimetry. J Mar Res 63:887–900
Gallee H, Schayes G (1994) Development of a three-dimensional meso-γ primitive equations 5 model. Mon Wea Rev 122:671–685
Haine TW, Curry B, Gerdes R, Hansen E, Karcher M, Lee C et al (2015) Arctic freshwater export: status, mechanisms, and prospects. Glob Planet Chang 125:13–35
Kouraev AV, Zakharova EV, Samain O, Mognard E, Cazenave A (2004) ‘Ob’ river discharge from TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimetry (1992–2002). Remote Sens Environ 93(1–2):238–245. ISSN 0034-4257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2004.07.007
Morlighem M, Williams CN, Rignot E, An L, Arndt JE, Bamber JL, Zinglersen KB (2017) BedMachine v3: complete bed topography and ocean bathymetry mapping of Greenland from multi-beam echo sounding combined with mass conservation. Geophys Res Lett 44:11,051–11,061. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074954
Nagler T, Rott H, Hetzenecker M, Wuite J, Potin P (2015) The Sentinel-1 Mission: new opportunities for ice sheet observations. Remote Sens 7:9371–9389
Nielsen K, Stenseng L, Andersen OB, Villadsen H, Knudsen P (2015) Validation of CryoSat-2 SAR mode based lake levels. Remote Sens Environ 171(15):162–170
Oltmanns M, Karstensen J, Fischer J (2018) Increased risk of a shutdown of ocean convection posed by warm North Atlantic summers. Nat Clim Chang 8:300–304
Proshutinsky A, Dukhovskoy D, Timmermans M-L, Krishfield R, Bamber JL (2015) Arctic circulation regimes. Philos Trans R Soc. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2014.0160
RGI Consortium (2017) Randolph Glacier Inventory – A Dataset of Global Glacier Outlines: Version 6.0: Technical Report, Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, Colorado, USA. Digital Media. https://doi.org/10.7265/N5-RGI-60
Serreze MC, Barrett AP, Slater AG, Woodgate RA, Aagaard K, Lammers RB, Steele M, Moritz R, Meredith M, Lee CM (2006) The large-scale freshwater cycle of the Arctic. J Geophys Res Oceans (1978–2012) 111(C11)
Spreen G, Kern S, Stammer D, Hansen E (2009) Fram Strait sea ice volume export estimated between 2003 and 2008 from satellite data. Geophys Res Lett 36(19):L19502. https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL039591
Van Meijgaard E, van Ulft LH, van de Berg WJ, Bosveld FC, van den Hurk B, Lenderink G, Siebesma AP (2008) Technical Report 302: the KNMI regional atmospheric climate model RACMO version 2.1. Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt
Woodgate RA, Stafford KM, Prahl FG (2015) A synthesis of year-round interdisciplinary mooring measurements in the Bering Strait (1990–2014) and the RUSALCA years (2004–2011). Oceanography 28(3):46–67. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2015.57
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to ESA for funding the ArcFlux study under the STSE ITT Arctic+ program. The authors would also like to thank the space agencies and data repositories (RADS and seaice.dk) for providing state-of-the-art data for the investigation. Finally, the authors would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Andersen, O.B. et al. (2019). Arctic Freshwater Fluxes from Earth Observation Data. In: Mertikas, S., Pail, R. (eds) Fiducial Reference Measurements for Altimetry. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 150. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/1345_2019_75
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1345_2019_75
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39437-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39438-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)