Funds are provided to investigate the causes and consequences of large ocean heat and freshwater changes in the Beaufort Gyre with the goal of understanding ocean drivers of Arctic sea-ice and climate change. Two objectives will be addressed: ? To investigate how recently observed summertime surface-layer heat and fresh-water anomalies are retained by the system throughout winter and spring and the relationship to ice cover, and ? To quantify spatial and temporal (seasonal and interannual) changes in the surface-layer heat and fresh-water budgets of the BG and their interaction with the sea-ice budget. This will be accomplished by answering several observational and dynamical questions: How does the declining ice cover relate to changes in ocean heat and fresh water? How do the surface, Pacific and Atlantic waters contribute to the heat and fresh-water balance and change in the Beaufort Gyre? To what extent are recent warming and freshening signals stored in the ocean, both seasonally and interannually? How much heat is transported from deeper waters to the ocean surface and ice cover? The principal investigators intend to investigate these aspects of the climate system by analysis of recent ocean and ice measurements, dynamical process studies, and analysis of historical data in the context of new measurements.
