The Arctic Ocean's Beaufort Gyre
Mary‐Louise Timmermans, John M. Toole
Abstract
The Arctic Ocean's Beaufort Gyre is a dominant feature of the Arctic system, a prominent indicator of climate change, and possibly a control factor for high-latitude climate. The state of knowledge of the wind-driven Beaufort Gyre is reviewed here, including its forcing, relationship to sea-ice cover, source waters, circulation, and energetics. Recent decades have seen pronounced change in all elements of the Beaufort Gyre system. Sea-ice losses have accompanied an intensification of the gyre circulation and increasing heat and freshwater content. Present understanding of these changes is evaluated, and time series of heat and freshwater content are updated to include the most recent observations.
Topics & Concepts
Ocean gyreOceanographyBeaufort scaleArcticSea iceArctic sea ice declineArctic ice packArctic geoengineeringEnvironmental scienceClimatologyBeaufort seaGeologyArctic dipole anomalyClimate changeDrift iceFisherySubtropicsBiologyArctic and Antarctic ice dynamicsMethane Hydrates and Related PhenomenaClimate change and permafrost