The Northern Arctic Ocean becomes warmer since the beginning of the 20th century, that is, for several decades earlier than scientists believed. The real situation with warming in the Arctic disclosed an international group of scientists, which reconstructed changes in the seawater temperature in the Frama Strait between Greenland and Svalbard. The results of the study are published in the journal Science Advances.
Researchers analyzed the chemical composition of marine microorganisms and found out that the Northern Arctic Ocean began to warm up at the beginning of the last century, when warmer and salt waters were injected from the Atlantic – this phenomenon called atlantation preceded warming. Since 1900, the temperature of the ocean has risen about two degrees Celsius, while the sea ice began to retreat, and the salinity increased.
Atlantation is one of the causes of the warming of the Arctic, however, satellite devices began to track it from the 40s. As the Northern Arctic Ocean becomes warmer, the melting of ice (not only marine, but also ground) increases in the polar region, which, in turn, affects the global sea level. Melting of permafrost can lead to a large amount of methane.
In the scenario of the future warming, a further slowdown in the circulation of water in the sea Labrador is expected due to the melting of the Greenland glacial cover, which is considered the cause of atlantic. Climate modeling usually does not reproduce this kind of warming in the Arctic Ocean, which indicates an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms controlling the warming of this ocean.