Special Session at EGU
OS9 Arctic and Subarctic Oceans Variability
European Geosciences Union
Nice, France
25 - 30 April 2004
Deadline for Submission: 11 January 2004
For further information about the special session, please go to:
http://www.cosis.net/members/meetings/programme/view.php?p_id=77
or contact:
Wieslaw Maslowski (maslowsk [at] nps.navy.mil)
SUBMISSIONS
The EGU session OS09 will deal with the observed and modelled
variability of the Arctic Ocean, the Nordic Seas and the Subpolar Basins
of the North Atlantic.
We invite contributions based on observations, analytical studies, and
numerical models concerned with exchanges between these regions and
discuss possible mechanisms of basin-to-basin interactions on both short
and long time scales.
Presentations on integration of various data sets concerned with Arctic
and Subpolar Oceans, model-data syntheses, and model intercomparisons
are welcome. The following topics are especially encouraged:
1) Recent decadal changes and future predictions of the Arctic Pack
Ice conditions
2) Large scale circulation and water mass transformation in relation
to Arctic-Atlantic and Arctic-Pacific exchanges of heat and
salt/freshwater, including use of models and tracers
3) The role of the Arctic and Subarctic Oceans ventilation in the
global thermohaline circulation at long time scales (decadal to
centennial).
4) The long term Pan-Arctic variability from a perspective of the
large scale atmospheric weather patterns
Finally, papers on new definitions and monitoring of marine environmental
changes in the Arctic and Subarctic regions, will be highly appreciated.
The deadline for abstract submission is January 11, 2004.
SESSION INFORMATION
During the last several decades the Arctic Ocean has been undergoing
striking large-scale changes, suggesting that this region is a highly
variable system with major regime shifts taking place at time scales
ranging from several years to decades. Critical aspects of these changes
include a strengthening of the Atlantic Water inflow through Fram Strait
and into the Canadian Basin and a significant reduction in thickness and
extent of the Arctic perennial Sea-Ice. Global climate models suggests
an 80% decrease of the arctic perennial sea ice within the next 50 years
or so. Observational and modeling studies suggest at least two regimes
in the arctic atmospheric circulation (cyclonic versus anticyclonic)
directly influencing sea-ice conditions and the freshwater and Atlantic
Water distribution. Whether these regimes result primarily from an
oscillatory mode (i.e. Arctic Oscillation) typical of the North Polar
Vortex, or from a coupling with lower latitudes (i.e. NAO) similar to
the southern hemisphere ENSO, or are they part of a trend related to
global changes, is yet to be determined.
In addition, during the past two decades we observed dramatic changes
through the whole water column of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. A
significant fraction of this change arose from an extreme development of
the winter convection in the Labrador Sea in the early 1990s. Important
changes in the North Atlantic Current to the subpolar basins and the
Nordic seas have been reported, as well as indications of some changes
in the flux of fresh and cold waters across the Greenland-Scotland
Ridge. Ultimately, the observed changes in the fresh and heat water
content in the subpolar gyre (including those delivered to the
intermediate layers by the deep convection in the Labrador Sea) can be
traced back to their source - the Arctic Basin and the Nordic Seas.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For further information about the special session, please go to:
http://www.cosis.net/members/meetings/programme/view.php?p_id=77
or contact:
Wieslaw Maslowski (maslowsk [at] nps.navy.mil)
For further information regarding EGU, please go to:
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/ga/egu04/programme/overview.html