Change of heat advection to the Barents sea

Abstract

At the present day flux of warm Atlantic waters into the Barents Sea influences on the change in the area of its ice cover. This paper estimates and analyzes the advective heat flux coming through a meridional section along 16.5° Еto the basin of the Barents Sea for the period from 1980 to 2015 based on ORAS4 reanalysis data. It was revealed that the Barents Sea entering heat flux is carried out by three jets in the southern, central and northern parts of the section and is62, 65, and 11 TW respectively, which are provided by water flows of 1.7, 2.1 and 0.5 Sv. A significant increase trend in heat flux occurs in central and northern streams, which is determined by trends in both water temperature and flow rates. The total heat flux into the Barents Sea basin has a significant positive trend with a value of 0.80 TW/year. Estimation of the trend revealed, that the central heat flux increased by 31% over the studied period, the northern heat flux increased most significantly – by 42%, which indicates the core of thermal activity on the sea border transfers to the north.

Keywords

• barents sea
• heat advection
• atlantic water