The Variability of the Temperature and Velocity Fields of the Atlantic Inflow to the Nordic Seas Toward the Arctic From Moored Measurements in the Svinøy Section 1995-2010

The Norwegian Atlantic Current serves as a conduit transporting warm and saline water from the North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean. Recent findings show dramatic climate changes in the Arctic with temperature increase and melting of glaciers and sea ice. In light of that, this study is motivated by an extraordinary warming of about 1°C over the 7-year period 1996-2003 of the Atlantic inflow to the Nordic Seas. This warming event has been connected to dynamical processes in the northern North Atlantic, particularly the slowdown of the subpolar gyre in the Labrador Sea. In this study we compare Sea Surface High (SSH) observations form satellite altimeter in the North Atlantic with moored temperature and velocity measurements in the Svinøy section over the nearly 15 year period 1995-2010. By resolving the SSH-field using Empiric Orthogonal Functions (EOF) methodology, we show that the temperature variability coincide with the first EOF-mode, while the velocity field coincide with the second EOF-mode. This is in accordance with earlier findings, showing that temperature variations appear to be independent of the flow field.