The Summer School students’ visits to the hydro-chemistry lab have started. Yesterday I went to watch a CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) cast. As the instruments were lowered down through the upper 1000 meters of the water column, profiles formed on the computer screen. First, cold and low salinity water on the surface. Soon, salinity started to increase, and then temperature, as the CTD was descending through the Atlantic water layer. Atlantic water is warm and saline, and flows here from the Atlantic Ocean through the Fram Strait and Barents Sea. I’ve been studying properties of waters in the Fram Strait, which is located between Greenland and Spitsbergen, and is a deep entrance to/exit from the Arctic Ocean. In the western Fram Strait, cold polar waters are transported southward by the East Greenland Current, and in the eastern parts, the West Spitsbergen Current carries Atlantic water northward. Some of the Atlantic water re-circulates, and turns back southward in the strait. And some of the Atlantic water makes a much longer loop inside the Arctic Ocean, and may eventually return south through the strait. Seeing Atlantic water here is like meeting an old friend. It is still recognizable, but it has undergone some changes, and is colder and less saline than when entering.
Unlike the Atlantic water, I have gotten a bit warmer as we have progressed further east along the Siberian shelf slopes. It seems I’ve caught a mild cold that someone picked up from Kirkenes and that has since been going around our closed ship.
-Marika Marnela
Hello I am a student from LEOMHS, I would like to ask you how often do you get to leave the ship?
Hi Nicole, funny you should ask that, because just 2 days ago I left the ship for the first time since August 20, and that was to walk out onto the frozen ocean to do scientific measurements of the Arctic ice! I think that will be the only time during the whole 5 week expedition that I will be able to set foot off the ship. But the ship is so huge, so it’s ok – you can go outside on the deck to see the view and watch the science operations like dropping instruments into the ocean, and you have your cabin with bed and bathroom, and a room to hang out in and do work with others. So it’s just like a floating scientific home!
Hello I am a student from LEOMHS, I would like to ask, coming from Miami have you ever been homesick?
Hi Nicole, I have not been homesick, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss home and all my family and friends! I have been really busy onboard, so there is always something to do, but also, having no internet or cell phone is strange, I must say! (Internet here is REALLY expensive and VERY slow), and there is no possibility of using a cell phone.)
Hi! Lindsay, you said that “seeing Atlantic water in the Arctic is like meeting an old friend”… Does that mean that there is an ocean current circling the North Pole similar to the circumpolar current around the South Pole? Also, when you said that the water is “less saline”…I would like to know how much different is it from its original form? An estimate of the difference in percentage form?
Dear Yanelis, the scientist who mentioned the water being “an old friend” was referring to the Atlantic water that does circulate around the Arctic Ocean. As for the water that is circulating back into the Atlantic being “less saline,” that is a great question. For comparison, on the cruise we have seen 34.9per mil salinity (per mil means per-thousand). The salinity variation is affected by a few factors, such as how far it traveled as it circulated through the Arctic, and what year it is (as conditions are slightly different from year to year). If you want a number for the Atlantic water mass which has gone through the straight, circulated through the Arctic and returned, it is about 34.95–35.1per-mil on the way in, and 34.85 – 34.9per-mil on the way out. It’s a small change, but detectable and significant!
I can’t believe how much I am learning that I would never had known if u Weren’t doing this blog. It is also interesting to read the comments from others. Also want u to know that Nawa is sitting on my lap checking out the pictures.
Hey Mom, I love that you’re writing on the blog! And I’m glad you are learning lots too, because I know I am! Give Nawa a pat on the head for me, I’m glad he’s following along too. 🙂