Total Arctic Ocean Heat?

[JimboOmega]

Do we have any sort of measurement that quantifies how much heat there is in the oceans at arctic latitudes?

I've heard all season that there's a lot of "extra heat" in the oceans (that is not reaching the ice necessarily), and I'm curious if we've quantified that, especially in a way that can be compared to previous years.

I'm thinking of something that includes heat in the form of extra ice and warmer water both. For simplicity there's not really a need to go into things like snowpack, greenland ice, etc.  Also, probably, only some small (top) portion of the water column matters.

[RoxTheGeologist]

From what I have read, if the Arctic mixed with all the incoming water it would keep the Arctic ice free. It is only preserved because of the halocline that develops during the summer when ice form a lens of fresh cold water at the surface that prevents mixing.

[sidd]

Re: Arctic ocean heat content

See Seidov et al. 2015, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2014.02.003

I attach figs 13, 14a) and 14b) The last has the caption for both panels of  fig 14

[sidd]

That whole Seidov paper is good, familiar names among the authors. I cant resist adding fig 10.

[JimboOmega]

Not quite clear what GINS is or why it is significant?

I was more interested in this year vs. previous years. There's a certain obsession with the amount of ice remaining, particularly what portion of the surface it covers.

But in my mind - if this year the various seas that make up the arctic are warmer than 2012 or 2015, and that just isn't mixing as well, that's something I'd like to know, too - as it means a lot for the upcoming freeze.

[sidd]

Sorry: GINS is Greenland,Norwegian,Iceland seas

I attach fig 2

[sidd]

To get year to year variation of ocean heat content (OHC) in the arctic i think you want to do what Seidov et al. did, grab the data from

https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/

select out northward from 60 degrees, and go to town.

sidd