Freshwater Variability between Ellesmere Island and the North Pole

The Switchyard Project has established a time series of CTD and chemical measurements between Ellesmere Island and the North Pole and annual observations have been taken since 2005 to the present. The total freshwater inventory and inventories of the freshwater components (meteoric water [MEW], sea-ice melt water [SIMW] and inflow from the Pacific Ocean [PFW]) are determined from measurements of temperature, salinity, delta O-18, nitrate and phosphate, each year. The total inventory has varied by about 5 m between 2005 and 2013, which is about 50% of the lowest inventory. The total inventory was fairly stable between 2003 - 2007, then increased dramatically between 2007 and 2008 and again between 2008 and 2009. It then decreased between 2009 and 2011 and increased from 2011 to 2013. The increase between 2007 and 2008 resulted primarily from an increase in MEW tempered by decreases in SIMW and PFW. Back tracks of ice flow suggested that these waters came from the Russian continental shelves via the Transpolar Drift along the Lomonosov Ridge. The continued freshening in 2009 corresponded with a change is the large scale circulation of the Canada Basin with a weakening of the Beaufort Gyre and expulsion of freshwater, which included water from the large sea ice melting event of 2007. SIMW accounted for about two-thirds of the freshening. Ice back tracks suggest that water flowed out of the Beaufort Sea in an anticylonic pattern and crossed the Canada Basin along the Mendelev Ridge to reach the Lincoln Sea with a transport time of 2-3 years. The freshwater decrease between 2010 and 2011 was the result of a 70% decrease in SIMW and 30% decrease in MEW and the ice track flow pattern had shifted back to the pattern prior to 2009. The source of freshwater for the increase in freshwater inventory between 2011 and 2013 was MEW. PFW retreated to the continental shelf of Ellesmere Island, decreasing by about 30% and SIMW decreased to more negative values indicating water flowing into the region had been subjected to substantial sea ice formation, removing freshwater. There was a major decrease in sea ice in the summer of 2012, reaching values lower than the 2007 event. A pulse of freshwater from sea ice melt was observed two years later as discussed above. It will be interesting see if a pulse is observed in 2014, but the flow pathways may be different now than during the 2009-2010 period when sea ice and presumably surface water were exiting the Beaufort Gyre in an anticyclonic flow.