Andrey Proshutinsky

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | WHOI · Department of Physical Oceanography

The impact of increasing Greenland freshwater discharge on the subpolar North Atlantic (SPNA) remains unknown as there are uncertainties associated with the time scales of the Greenland freshwater anomaly (GFWA) in the SPNA. Results from numerical simulations tracking GFWA and an analytical approach are employed to estimate the response time sugges...

In 2020, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) celebrates 90 years of research, education, and exploration of the World Ocean. Since inception this has included Arctic studies. In fact, WHOI’s first technical report is on the oceanographic data obtained during the submarine “Nautilus” polar expedition in 1931. In 1951 and 1952, WHOI scien...

The Pacific Arctic Region has experienced decadal changes in atmospheric conditions, seasonal sea-ice coverage, and thermohaline structure that have consequences for underwater sound propagation. To better understand Arctic acoustics, a set of experiments known as the deep-water Canada Basin acoustic propagation experiment and the shallow-water Can...

One of the foci of the Forum for Artic Modeling and Observational Synthesis (FAMOS) project is improving Arctic regional ice‐ocean models and understanding of physical processes regulating variability of Arctic environmental conditions based on synthesis of observations and model results. The Beaufort Gyre, centered in the Canada Basin of the Arcti...

Plain Language Abstract The Beaufort Gyre centered in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean is the major reservoir of fresh water in the Arctic. The primary focus of this study is on quantifying variability and trends in liquid (water) and solid (sea ice) freshwater content in this region. The Beaufort Gyre Exploration Program was initiated in 2003...

Analysis of one-year-long broadband transmissions from five deep water sound sources recorded on shelf during the Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation shows strong azimuthal variability. Broadband chirp signals (140–325 Hz) transmitted every 4 h were received on spatially distributed receiver arrays on the Chukchi shelf from October 2016 through 2017....

The Beaufort Gyre is a key feature of the Arctic Ocean, acting as a reservoir for freshwater in the region. Depending on whether the prevailing atmospheric circulation in the Arctic is anticyclonic or cyclonic, either a net accumulation or release of freshwater occurs. The sources of freshwater to the Arctic Ocean are well established and include c...

Solute exclusion during sea ice formation is a potentially important contributor to the Arctic Ocean inorganic carbon cycle that could increase as ice cover diminishes. When ice forms, solutes are excluded from the ice matrix, creating a brine that includes dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (AT). The brine sinks, potentially exp...

The cumulative Greenland freshwater flux anomaly has exceeded 5,000 km³ since the 1990s. The volume of this surplus freshwater is expected to cause substantial freshening in the North Atlantic. Analysis of hydrographic observations in the subpolar seas reveals freshening signals in the 2010s. The sources of this freshening are yet to be determined....

A new special collection in JGR: Oceans presents results from studies of the Beaufort Gyre, an oceanic circulation system in the Arctic that has far-reaching influence on the global climate.

No PDF available ABSTRACT During the Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE), low-frequency signals from five tomographic sources located in the Canada Basin were recorded by an array of hydrophones located on the Chukchi Shelf. The propagation distances ranged from 240 km to 520 km, and the propagation conditions changed from persist...

The Pacific Arctic Region, has experienced decadal changes in atmospheric conditions, seasonal sea-ice coverage, and seawater temperature. From the October 2016 to September 2017, the Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE) was conducted to understand the changing soundscape and to explore the use of acoustic signals as a remote sensi...

Several recent field efforts have revealed surprisingly complex and dynamic thermohaline structure in the upper ocean of the Beaufort Sea. Solitary and compact eddies with strong temperature contrasts and currents have been observed in multiple locations and are associated with vigorous mixing, staircase structure and intrusive feature formation. W...

A tomography array was deployed in the Beaufort Sea for a year beginning in late summer 2016 during the Office of Naval Research sponsored project called the Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE.) This talk will look in detail at the propagation characteristics of broadband sound transmitted at 250 Hz over 108 km to 285 km ranges as...

The Arctic Ocean is undergoing dramatic changes in the ice cover and ocean structure. The 2016–2017 deep-water Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE) was designed to understand the effects of changing Arctic conditions on low-frequency, long-range propagation and ambient noise. Five acoustic transceivers were deployed in a pentagon w...

Similar to the construction of physical ships and laboratory buildings, scientific knowledge is built incrementally and requires solid components of data, theory, and methodology at each phase of the “construction.” The peer-review process provides the necessary “inspection” and the assurance that every step of the construction is solid, particular...

The Arctic Ocean is undergoing dramatic changes in both ice cover and ocean structure. The Canada Basin Acoustic Propagation Experiment (CANAPE), which includes both deep and shallow water components, was designed to understand the effects of changing Arctic conditions on low-frequency propagation and ambient noise. The deep-water component, which...

A coordinated set of Arctic modelling experiments, which explore how the Arctic responds to changes in external forcing, is proposed. Our goal is to compute and compare “climate response functions” (CRFs) – the transient response of key observable indicators such as sea-ice extent, freshwater content of the Beaufort Gyre, etc. – to abrupt “step” ch...

The Arctic halocline stratification is an important barrier to transport of deep ocean heat to the underside of sea ice. Surface water in the Chukchi Sea, warmed in summer by solar radiation, ventilates the Canada Basin halocline to create a warm layer below the mixed-layer base. The year-round persistence of this layer is shown to be consistent wi...

A coordinated set of Arctic modeling experiments is proposed which explore how the Arctic responds to changes in external forcing. Our goal is to compute and compare 'Climate Response Functions' (CRFs) – the transient response of key observable indicators such as sea-ice extent, freshwater content of the Beaufort Gyre etc. – to abrupt 'step' change...

Data from a shipboard hydrographic survey near 30°E in the Nansen Basin of the Arctic Ocean are used to investigate the structure and transport of the Atlantic Water boundary current. Two high-resolution synoptic crossings of the current indicate that it is roughly 30 km wide and weakly mid-depth intensified. Using a previously-determined definitio...

This community-based approach to modeling provides a unique forum for coordination, investigation, and synthesis.

The overall goal of the Forum for Arctic Modeling and Observing Synthesis (FAMOS) community activities reported in this special issue is to enhance understanding of processes and mechanisms driving Arctic Ocean marine and sea ice changes, and the consequences of those changes especially in biogeochemical and ecosystem studies. Major 2013-2015 FAMOS...

The Beaufort Gyre in the Arctic Ocean differs from a typical moderate-latitude gyre in some major aspects of its dynamics. First, it is located in a basin without a western boundary, which is essential for closing mid-latitude circulations. Second, the gradient in Coriolis parameter, β, is small and so the validity of the Sverdrup balance is uncert...

Accelerating since the early 1990s, the Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss exerts a significant impact on thermohaline processes in the sub-Arctic seas. Surplus freshwater discharge from Greenland since the 1990s, comparable in volume to the amount of freshwater present during the Great Salinity Anomaly events, could spread and accumulate in the sub-Arc...

Pacific Water (PW) enters the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait and brings heat, fresh water and nutrients from the northern Bering Sea. The circulation of PW in the central Arctic Ocean is only partially understood due to the lack of observations. In this paper pathways of PW are investigated using simulations with six state-of-the art regional a...

Between 1948 and 1996, mean annual environmental parameters in the Arctic experienced a well-pronounced decadal variability with two basic circulation patterns: cyclonic and anticyclonic alternating at 5 to 7 year intervals. During cyclonic regimes, low sea-level atmospheric pressure (SLP) dominated over the Arctic Ocean driving sea ice and the upp...

Five quantitative methodologies (metrics) that may be used to assess the skill of sea ice models against a control field are analyzed. The methodologies are Absolute Deviation, Root-Mean-Square Deviation , Mean Displacement, Hausdorff Distance, and Modified Hausdorff Distance. The methodologies are employed to quantify similarity between spatial di...

Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITP), deployed in the Arctic Ocean between 2004 and 2013, have provided detailed temperature and salinity measurements of an assortment of halocline eddies. A total of 127 mesoscale eddies have been detected, 95% of which were anticyclones, the majority of which had anomalously cold cores. These cold-core anticyclonic eddies...

Pacific Water flows northward through Bering Strait and penetrates the Arctic Ocean halocline throughout the Canadian Basin sector of the Arctic. In summer, Pacific Summer Water (PSW) is modified by surface buoyancy fluxes and mixing as it crosses the shallow Chukchi Sea before entering the deep ocean. Measurements from Ice-Tethered Profilers, moor...

Time series of ice draft from 2003-2012 from moored sonar data are used to investigate variability and describe the reduction of the perennial sea ice cover in the Beaufort Gyre (BG), culminating in the extreme minimum in 2012. Negative trends in median ice drafts and most ice fractions are observed, while open water and thinnest ice fractions (<0....

Observational studies have shown that an unprecedented warm anomaly has recently affected the temperature of the Atlantic Water (AW) layer lying at intermediate depth in the Arctic Ocean. Using observations from four profiling moorings, deployed in the interior of the Canada Basin between 2003 and 2011, the upward diffusive vertical heat flux from...

Decadal-scale regime shifts in Northwest Atlantic shelf ecosystems can be remotely forced by climate-associated atmosphere-ocean interactions in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean Basins. This remote climate forcing is mediated primarily by basin- and hemispheric-scale changes in ocean circulation. We review and synthesize results from process-ori...

One of the most intriguing manifestations of climate change is the cessation of decadal Arctic climate variability in the 21st century. Between 1948 and 1996, the Arctic atmospheric circulation experienced a well pronounced decadal variability, alternating between anticyclonic circulation regimes (ACCRs) and cyclonic circulation regimes (CCRs) at 5...

Observations showed that the fresh-water content (FWC) in the Arctic Beaufort Gyre has increased substantially since 1990. A leading mechanism for this increase is that the Ekman convergence and pumping has intensified. In this study we analyzed atmospheric data to characterize changes in the curl of surface stress and their relationships to variat...

Six Arctic Ocean Model Intercomparison Project model simulations are compared with estimates of sea ice thickness derived from pan-Arctic satellite freeboard measurements (2004-2008); airborne electromagnetic measurements (2001-2009); ice draft data from moored instruments in Fram Strait, the Greenland Sea, and the Beaufort Sea (1992-2008) and from...

The Arctic climate is undergoing major changes. In the summer of 2007, sea-ice extent reached a record minimum, including severe loss in the Arctic's Beaufort Gyre, an ice-ocean circulation system in the Canadian Basin. Furthermore, observations in the Beaufort Gyre during the past decade reveal a dramatic warming and freshening of the ocean. These...

Sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean diminished significantly during the first decade of the 2000s, most particularly in the Canada Basin where the loss of both multiyear and first-year ice was greater than in the other three sub-basins. Using data collected during basin-wide surveys conducted from 2003-2010 together with data collected during the 19...

Observational data show that the Arctic Ocean has significantly and rapidly changed over the last few decades, which is unprecedented in the observational record. Air and water temperatures have increased, sea ice volume and extent have decreased, permafrost has thawed, storminess has increased, sea level has risen, coastal erosion has progressed,...

Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITPs), first deployed in fall 2004, have significantly increased the number of high-quality upper-ocean water-property observations available from the central Arctic. This article reviews the instrument technology and provides a status report on performance, along with several examples of the science that ITPs and companion...

Data collected by an autonomous ice-based observatory that drifted into the Eurasian Basin between April and November 2010 indicate that the upper ocean was appreciably fresher than in 2007 and 2008. Sea ice and snowmelt over the course of the 2010 drift amounted to an input of less than 0.5 m of liquid freshwater to the ocean (comparable to the fr...

Several large-scale climate patterns influenced climate conditions and weather patterns across the globe during 2010. The transition from a warm El Nino phase at the beginning of the year to a cool La Nina phase by July contributed to many notable events, ranging from record wetness across much of Australia to historically low Eastern Pacific basin...

In this presentation we update our time series of the Arctic Ocean Oscillation (AOO) index and show decadal variability for 1946-present illustrated by decadal changes in different atmospheric, sea ice, oceanic and terrestrial parameters correlating with AOO. In particularly, in 2009, the wind-driven circulation regime can be characterized as cyclo...

Thirty-seven Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITP) have been deployed throughout the Arctic Ocean in the six years since inception in 2004, in an international collaboration that extended through the International Polar Year, and is a continuing contribution to the Arctic Observing Network (4 more ITPs will be deployed in 2010, and more later). Nearly 30,00...

Variations in the Arctic central Canada Basin mixed layer properties are documented based on a subset of nearly 6500 temperature and salinity profiles acquired by Ice-Tethered Profilers during the period summer 2004 to summer 2009 and analyzed in conjunction with sea ice observations from ice mass balance buoys and atmosphere-ocean heat flux estima...

The Chukchi Sea (CS) circulation reconstructed for September 1990 to October 1991 from sea ice and ocean data is presented and analyzed. The core of the observational data used in this study comprises the records from 12 moorings deployed in 1990 and 1991 in U.S. and Russian waters and two hydrographic surveys conducted in the region in the fall of...

In the deep Canada Basin, below the sill depth (about 2400 m) of the Alpha-Mendeleyev Ridge, potential temperature and salinity first increase with depth, then remain uniform from about 2600 m to the bottom (approximately 3500 m). Year-long moored measurements of temperature, salinity and pressure in these deep and homogeneous bottom waters reveal...

First, we investigated some aspects of tsunami–tide interactions based on idealized numerical experiments. Theoretically, by changing total ocean depth, tidal elevations influence the speed and magnitude of tsunami waves in shallow regions with dominating tidal signals. We tested this assumption by employing a simple 1-D model that describes propag...

In 2008, there was an unprecedented amount of fresh water in the surface layer of the Arctic Ocean. The source of the fresh water was melting sea ice. The heating of the ocean in areas of extreme summer sea ice loss (for instance, summer surface water temperatures in the Beaufort Sea were more than 3°C above average) was contributing to record high...

Introduction: In the last two decades, significant changes have occurred in the Arctic Ocean as well as in the entire Arctic region. The ice cover of Arctic seas, which was gradually (linearly) decreasing from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of it [1], began to shrink rapidly in the 1990s and in the 21st century [2]. Salinity variation...

The flow of summer and winter Pacific water masses through Herald Canyon is investigated using data from a high-resolution hydrographic/velocity survey conducted in summer 2004. The survey was part of the Russian-American Long Term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) program, and consisted of four cross-canyon transects occupied over a 2-day period. At...

The relationship among the cause-and-effect of the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean is discussed. The increased vulnerability of the Arctic system to anomalous atmospheric forcing can be argued from the perspective that recent ice loss is the result of a long-term preconditioning to thinner ice. Such consequences demonstrate the difficulties i...

[1] A spherical coordinate version of the unstructured grid 3-D FVCOM (finite volume coastal ocean model) has been applied to the Arctic Ocean to simulate tides with a horizontal resolution ranging from 1 km in the near-coastal areas to 15 km in the deep ocean. By accurately resolving the irregular coastlines and bathymetry in the Arctic Ocean coas...

We investigate basin-scale mechanisms regulating anomalies in freshwater content (FWC) in the Beaufort Gyre (BG) of the Arctic Ocean using historical observations and data collected in 2003-2007. Specifically, the mean annual cycle and interannual and decadal FWC variability are explored. The major cause of the large FWC in the BG is the process of...

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 36 (2009): L10602, doi:10.1029/2009GL037525. The dramatic reduction in minimum Arctic sea ice extent in recent year...

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): C00A08, doi:10.1029/2008JC005162. The BG Observational program has been jointly supported by the USA...

Thirty Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) instruments were deployed from 2004 through 2008 throughout the Arctic by an international team of scientists to monitor variability of upper ocean seawater properties. Altogether, these systems have returned over 16,000 high-vertical-resolution temperature and salinity profiles spanning approximately 7 to 760 m d...

The Arctic Ocean's surface mixed layer constitutes the dynamical and thermodynamical link between the sea ice and the underlying waters. Wind stress, acting directly on the surface mixed layer or via wind-forced ice motion, produce surface currents that can in turn drive deep ocean flow. Mixed layer temperature is intimately related to basal sea ic...

We investigate basin-scale mechanisms regulating anomalies in fresh water content (FWC) in the Beaufort Gyre (BG) of the Arctic Ocean using historical observations, data collected in 2003-2008 by the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project, and measurements obtained from drifting Ice-Tethered Profilers. The major cause of the large FWC in the BG is the p...

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): D06204, doi:10.1029/2008JD011257. The paper presents the current status of the Maritime Aerosol Netw...

In order to reconstruct the circulation in the Arctic Ocean from available observations we are developing an efficient data assimilation system involving application of several data assimilation approaches. In a preliminary effort, the data assimilation system was used to reconstruct circulation in the Chukchi Sea during 1990-1991 and circulation i...

Based on an aerial hydrographic survey conducted in March and April, 2008, supplemented by unmanned drifting ice-tethered profilers (ITPs), we report that the precipitous decrease in minimum Arctic ice extent observed in the past few years has been accompanied by significant changes in upper ocean salinity, especially over the Canada Basin, where t...

We investigate basin-scale mechanisms regulating anomalies in fresh water content (FWC) in the Beaufort Gyre (BG) of the Arctic Ocean using historical observations, data collected in 2003-2007 by the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project, and measurements obtained from drifting Ice-Tethered Profilers. The major cause of the large FWC in the BG is the p...

On the heels of a record minimum ice extent in September 2007, unique changes were observed in the central Arctic Ocean and Beaufort Sea in spring 2008 as part of collaboration amongst the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO), Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project (BGEP), Ice Tethered Profiler (ITP) and Switchyard programs. NPEO includes an auto...

Several data assimilation algorithms were combined to develop an efficient data assimilation system in the Arctic Ocean. Conventional four-dimensional variational technique for the oceanic data and nudging data assimilation for the ice data are proposed to build reanalysis of the ice and ocean conditions in the Arctic Ocean for a period of 20 years...