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Satellites detect abundance of fresh water in the Arctic

23 January 2012

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The Beaufort Gyre is a great clockwise ocean circulation in the western Arctic Ocean. Accelerated by strong Arctic winds, the sea surface bulges upwards. Measurements from ESA’s ERS and Envisat missions show that, since 2002, the surface has risen by about 15 cm and the volume of fresh water has swollen by approximately 8000 cubic km – around 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic Ocean.

Credits: CPOM/UCL/ESA/Planetary Visions

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Arctic Ocean mean sea-surface with respect to the geoid for the past 15 years of satellite radar altimetry data. The Beaufort Gyre is the yellow/orange dome in the Western Arctic.

Credits: CPOM/UCL/ESA/Planetary Visions

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This is a mosaic of Envisat radar images acquired between 9 and 11 September 2011 over the Arctic Ocean. The sea ice extent highlighted in blue corresponds to the areas where more than 80% of the sea surface is covered by ice (from an analysis performed by the US National Ice Center). The Arctic is one of the most inaccessible regions on Earth, so obtaining measurements of sea ice was difficult before the advent of satellites.

Credits: ESA/DMI/NIC