Factors Reducing Efficiency of the Operational Oceanographic Forecast Systems in the Arctic Basin

Abstract

Reliability of the forecasted fields in the Arctic Basin is limited by a number of problems resulting, in the first turn, from lack of operational information. Due to the ice cover, satellite data on the sea level and the sea surface temperature is either completely not available or partially accessible in summer. The amount of CTD measuring systems functioning in the operational mode (3 – 5 probes) is not sufficient. The number of the temperature-profiling buoys the probing depth of which is limited to 60 m, is not enough for the Arctic as well. Lack of spatial resolution of the available altimetry information (14 km), as compared to the Rossby radius in the Arctic Ocean (2 – 12 km), requires a thorough analysis of the forecasting system practical goals. The basic factor enhancing reliability of the oceanographic forecast consists in the fact that the key oceanographic regions, namely the eastern parts of the Norwegian and Greenland seas, the Barents Sea and the Chukchi Sea including the Bering Strait (where the Atlantic and Pacific waters flow in and transform, and the halocline structure is formed) are partially or completely free of ice and significantly better provided with operational information.

Keywords

• Arctic
• operational oceanography
• ocean monitoring
• thermohaline structure