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Barents Sea

Group Data Request

Coordinator: Sirpa Hakkinen

One pathway for Atlantic waters entering the Arctic Ocean is via the Barent Sea. The loss of heat while traversing the Barents Sea greatly modifies this water mass prior to its entry into the Arctic Ocean proper. To investigate the amount of heat lost, AOMIP groups are asked to supply the following model data:

  • Computed heat flux over Barents Sea along the lines suggested by the following Fortran code fragment ...

ahe=0.
do j=1,max j index
do i=1,max i index
if((alat(i,j).le.77.5.and.alat(i,j).ge.70.).and.
+   (alon(i,j).ge.20.and.alon(i,j).le.50.)) then
ahe=ahe+flx(i,j)*art(i,j)*1.E-12
c  flux(i,j) is your average heat flux (W/m2) during the year
c  and art(i,j) is the area of your grid box (in m2)
endif
enddo
enddo
write(6,*) 'AVE HEAT ',ahe,' TW'

  • Total surface area of the model Barents Sea
  • Average ice concentration (monthly)
  • Average potential temperature in the total volume (monthly)
  • (reference depth is surface)
  • Volume transport through Barents Sea Opening (monthly)
  • Heat transport through Barents Sea Opening (monthly)