Pathways of the Greenland Sea warming

Progressive warming of the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) has been observed since 2004. During summer 2006 temperature and salinity of the core of Atlantic Water (AW) reached the highest ever observed by the Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAS) values. The structure of the WSC, the heat content and the extent of AW in the Fram Strait (FS) region has also changed. Temperature changes resulted from the upstream warming of the Norwegian-Atlantic Current (NwAC); the structure of the WSC and its heat content were modified by the northward advection of large mesoscale eddies observed within the western branch of the WSC in summer 2005. These changes may have large impacts on the Arctic Ocean (AO) climate and ecosystem.