00:03In 2012 another team detected a previously unknown redistribution of fresh water during
00:09the past decade from the Eurasian half of the Arctic Ocean to the Canadian half.
00:15Concerns include that melting Arctic sea ice could be increasing the amount of fresh water
00:20in the Arctic enough to have an impact on the global ocean conveyor belt that redistributes
00:26heat around our planet. And the reduction in fresh water entering the Eurasian Basin resulting
00:32from the Arctic Oscillation change could contribute to sea ice declines in that part of the Arctic.
00:38The redistribution to an eastward shift in the path of Russian runoff through the Arctic Ocean is tied
00:45to an increase in the strength of the northern hemisphere's west to east atmospheric circulation
00:51known as the Arctic Oscillation. The resulting counterclockwise winds change the direction
00:58of ocean circulation diverting upper ocean fresh water from Russian rivers away from the Arctic's
01:05Eurasian Basin between Russia and Greenland to the Beaufort Sea in the Canada Basin bordered by the United
01:13States and Canada. The stronger Arctic Oscillation is associated with two decades of reduced atmospheric
01:20pressure over the Russian side of the Arctic. A 2016 published study concluded the large seasonal cycle
01:28of Arctic sea surface height SSH with an amplitude of about five centimeters is dominated by seasonal
01:37steric height variation associated with seasonal freshwater fluxes and peaks in October-November.
01:45Overall the annual mean steric height increased by 2.2 plus minus 1.4 centimeters between 2003 and 2012
01:55before falling to circa 2003 levels between 2012 and 2014 due to large reductions on the Siberian shelf
02:05seas. The total secular change in SSH between 2003 and 2014 is then dominated
02:14by a 2.1 plus minus 0.7 centimeter increase in ocean mass. We estimate that by 2010 the Beaufort
02:25Gaia
02:25had accumulated 4600 square kilometers of freshwater relative to the 2003 to 2006 mean.
