Fresh water can reduce the salinity of the northernmost surface water in the Atlantic. This in turn could affect the extension of the Gulf Stream.
From Finland only a few rivers in Lapland and the Northeast River flow in the direction of the Arctic Ocean, but huge freshwater flows into the northernmost seas from Siberia and northern Canada, among others.
It is important to know how much, as river water, along with meltwater from the Greenland glaciers, can reduce the salinity of the northernmost Atlantic surface water.
As less salty, the water would sink more slowly into the deep circulation of the sea.
As sinking is needed to replace the new surface water, the extension of the Gulf Stream that is warming Northern Europe would also slow down.
Size river flow in the arctic will be more accurately determined by using satellite imagery of the entire region instead of direct measurement of a few rivers, U.S. researchers show in Nature Communications.
A child throws a snowball at the Yen River. The outflows of the mighty stream in Siberia have decreased.
From the river widths shown in the figures, they use flow models to calculate that over 35 years, total flow has been 3 to 17 percent higher and growing 1.2 to 3.3 times faster than previously estimated.
About the individual of which you do not see the whole truth. It may sound surprising that measuring devices raised in space work better than those immersed in a river.
The reason is that only a small part of the Arctic rivers have published on-site flow measurements over decades.
There are about 300 such river sections in the entire Arctic region, more than 90 percent of which are located in North America.
Instead, from satellite imagery, scientists were able to calculate the situation for nearly half a million sections of the river from one day to the next between 1984 and 2018.
The complex impact of global warming on water cycles is reflected not only in the threat to sea currents but also in the large local variation in river flows.
Although the change in the north has, on average, increased rainfall and the melting of glaciers and frost and thus increased river flow, with some areas drying up.
For example, in the middle reaches of the Mackenzie River in Canada and at the tops of the Yenisei in Siberia, annual discharges have decreased.
Published in Science Nature 2/2022