See How a Stronger Arctic Oscillation Has Shifted the Flow of Russian Runoff



An interesting new study published in Nature points out that an increase in the strength of the Arctic Oscillation between 2005 and 2008 caused winds in the region to grow more cyclonic and shift ocean currents in ways that drew more upper-surface freshwater from Russian rivers toward the Canada Basin and the Beaufort Sea. To see the shift in the animation above, look for the tightening of the wind patterns (shown in blue) over the Canada Basin that begins about 13 seconds into the video. Notice how the stream of less salty water from river runoff in Russia (shown in red) begins to loop westward toward Canada in sync with the circulation of the wind rather than continuing toward Greenland as it typically would. The purple arrows show the transpolar drift, a current that generally pushes water toward Greenland. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a press release with more details, and a number of news outlets have written stories about the study. In the image below, the altered path of the freshwater current is shown in red.

2 thoughts on “See How a Stronger Arctic Oscillation Has Shifted the Flow of Russian Runoff”

  1. At aprox. 5:55am this morning (1/7/12) I saw what I thought to be a satalite at first going across the sky northern. But then it got really bright and was moving very fast then got so dim I could barely see it. I swear there was another this flying in front to the right that was very dim. I watched it for a while confused. It stopped and sat for almost a minute then started heading back on an angle. I ran inside to get the video camera which with my luck had a dead battery. I didn’t see it again. I was wondering if you know what that could have been. I have never seen anything like that before. I would really appreciate your time and response. Thanks so much!

  2. hello,
    thats very good news for us that the earth is not any danger zone…..
    we r so worried about it. but now some what tension free. but we want an exact information about 2012……
    is thta movie will true? there is so many questions like that.

    Thank you

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