Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.9.
Mean surface salinity (psu) for summer (adapted from Arctic Climatology
Project,
1998
, by permission of NSIDC, Boulder, CO).
Given the great importance of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean, efforts have been
made to quantify its major sources, sinks, and storage terms (e.g., Aagaard and
Carmack,
1989
).
Figure 2.12
depicts annual freshwater fluxes and stores relative to
a reference salinity of 34.8 psu (taken as the average salinity of the Arctic Ocean),
based on a variety of atmospheric, terrestrial, and oceanic data sources, each with
their own sources of error. Volumetric freshwater fluxes (F
FW
) can be related to total
volumetric water fluxes (FT)
T
) and the observed salinity (S) of the water associated
with the flux as:
F
FW
= F
T
(1 - S/34.8)
(2.1)
Hence if the total water flux has a salinity less than the reference value, the flux
has a positive freshwater component. If the salinity of the water flux is higher than
