Earth  ID: 10889

NASA Finds Russian Runoff Freshening Canadian Arctic

Released on January 4, 2012
A new NASA and University of Washington study allays concerns that melting Arctic sea ice could be increasing the amount of freshwater in the Arctic enough to have an impact on the global "ocean conveyor belt" that redistributes heat around our planet. Read the full press release here: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20120104.html
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The transpolar drift (purple arrows) is a dominant circulation feature in the Arctic Ocean that carries freshwater runoff (red arrows) from rivers in Russia across the North Pole and south towards Greenland. Under changing atmospheric conditions, emergent circulation patterns (blue arrows) drive freshwater runoff east towards Canada, resulting in freshening of Arctic water in the Canada Basin.

For More Information

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20120104.html

Credits

Rachel Kreutzinger (USRA): Animator
Ryan Zuber (UMBC): Animator
Kayvon Sharghi (USRA): Producer
James Morison (University of Washington): Scientist
Ronald Kwok (NASA/JPL Caltech): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10889

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans
GCMD >> Location >> Russia
GCMD >> Location >> Arctic
GCMD >> Location >> Alaska
SVS >> Earth Science >> Circulation
SVS >> Circulation
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0