The Transpolar Drift Stream is a major

ocean current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, sh ...

of the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

, transporting surface waters and

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less density, dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world' ...

from the

Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with ...

and the

East Siberian Sea The East Siberian Sea (; ) is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka, ...

towards

Fram Strait The Fram Strait is the passage between Greenland and Svalbard, located roughly between 77th parallel north, 77°N and 81st parallel north, 81°N latitudes and centered on the prime meridian. The Greenland Sea, Greenland and Norwegian Seas lie sou ...

. Drift experiments with ships such as the Fram or the Tara expedition showed that the drift takes between two and four years. Recent satellite data and the most recent drift experiment, MOSAiC, shows that the current has accelerated and ice drifts much faster than earlier, in less than two years across the Arctic Ocean. In 1937,

Pyotr Shirshov Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov (; 17 February 1953) was a Soviet oceanographer, hydrobiologist, polar explorer, statesman, academician (1939), the first minister of Ministry of Maritime Fleet of the USSR and Hero of the Soviet Union (1938). Pyotr ...

at the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

drift ice station

North Pole-1 North Pole-1 () was the world's first crewed drifting ice station in the Arctic Ocean, primarily used for research. North Pole-1 was established on 21 May 1937 and officially opened on 6 June, some from the North Pole by the expedition into the ...

described this drift. The stream conveys water in roughly two major routes to the northern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

at a rate of about per day. Primarily wind-driven, it flows roughly from the northern coast of Russia and Alaska, sometimes curving toward the

Beaufort Sea The Beaufort Sea ( ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alaska, and west of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The sea is named after Sir Francis Beaufort, a Hydrography, hydrographer. T ...

before exiting to the Atlantic Ocean. It has been cited as a major factor in the North Atlantic oscillation and

Arctic oscillation The Arctic oscillation (AO) or Northern Annular Mode/Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode (NAM) is a weather phenomenon at the Arctic pole north of 55 degrees latitude. It is an important mode of climate variability for the Northern Hemisphere. The s ...

atmospheric changes. The drift typically takes one of two paths before exiting into the northern Atlantic Ocean through the

. On decadal and longer timescales, the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic oscillation (AO) indices affect the flow pattern of the transpolar drift stream. During times of positive NAO (NAO+) and positive AO (AO+), there is a weak Arctic high and the associated surface winds produce a cyclonic (anti-clockwise) ice drift motion in eastern Arctic Ocean. In this case, the drift flows from the Laptev Sea towards the Beaufort Sea before exiting the Arctic Ocean through the Fram Strait. Conversely, during periods of NAO- and AO-, there is a strong Arctic high and ice motion flows in an anticyclonic (clockwise) motion in the Eurasian Basin. In this phase, the drift flows directly from the Laptev Sea through the Fram Strait.

References

* Althoff, William F. ''Drift Station: Arctic Outposts of Superpower Science''. Potomac Books Inc. 2007, Dulles, Virginia. p. 51 * Mysak, Lawrence A
"Patterns of Arctic Circulation"
''Science''. New Series, Vol. 293, No. 5533 (Aug. 17, 2001), pp. 1269–1270. Currents of the Arctic Ocean Articles containing video clips {{Marine-current-stub de:Eisdrift#Eisdrift in der Arktis

See also

References