FreshArc - Arctic freshwater export through Fram Strait in an era of Arctic Ocean freshening and sea ice thinning

One of the key questions within present-day climate research is: has Arctic Ocean freshwater export to the North Atlantic increased? Knowledge of the Arctic freshwater export and its drivers is essential since anomalies in freshwater have the capacity to modify the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation strength and therewith our present-day mild climate in western Europe. The proposed research will investigate modern variability and trends in the freshwater export from the Arctic through Fram Strait. A unique and fundamentally improved observationally-based baseline of total freshwater export including both oceanic freshwater and sea ice will be developed. This project will investigate the response of the Arctic Ocean freshwater export to the fast changes in the Arctic Ocean, sea ice and atmospheric circulation that have occurred in the last two decades. An integral approach is taken by combining high-resolution in-situ oceanographic and sea ice measurements, remote sensing products, atmospheric reanalysis, and output from a coupled sea ice-ocean model. New, high-quality data collected by innovative instrumentation installed on the moorings in this project will improve the earlier freshwater estimates and reduce errors significantly. The results of this research will deliver important new insights of the implications of Arctic climate change for the mid latitudes.