Arctic ice melt disrupting ocean current
Researchers say influx of cold water can alter Western Europe’s weather ■ DUE TO this decline of the Arctic’s summertime ice cover, the Beaufort Gyre is more exposed to the wind that has spun the gyre faster, trapping the fresh water in its current.
Los Angeles, Feb. 9: Researchers have unravelled how an ocean water current, which plays a key role in keeping Western Europe warm, could be altered by an influx of unprecedented amounts of cold, fresh water from melting ice in the Arctic.
According to the scientists, including those from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US, an seawater current called the Beaufort Gyre keeps the polar environment in balance by storing fresh water near the surface of the Arctic ocean. Wind blows the gyre in a clockwise direction around the western Arctic Ocean, north of Canada, where it naturally collects fresh water from the melting of glaciers, and river runoff, the study, published in Nature Communications, noted. They said this fresh water is important in the Arctic since it floats above the warmer, salty water, and helps protect the sea ice from melting — in turn regulating the Earth’s climate.
As the fresh water is slowly released by the gyre into the Atlantic Ocean over a period of decades, it allows the Atlantic Ocean currents to carry it away in small amounts. However, since the 1990s, the gyre has accumulated a large amount of fresh water — 8,000 cubic kilometres — or almost twice the volume of Lake Michigan in the US. According to the study, the cause of this gain in freshwater concentration is the loss of sea ice in summer and autumn. Due to this decadeslong decline of the Arctic’s summertime ice cover, the Beaufort Gyre is more exposed to the wind, which has spun the gyre faster, trapping the fresh water in its current.