Seasonal, interannual and decadal variability of heat and freshwater content in the Norwegian Sea

There is a great interest in how the Norwegian Sea conveys oceanic signals from the North Atlantic to the Arctic and in what sense these are predictable. In this study hydrographic variability of Atlantic water in the eastern part of the Nordic Seas, the Norwegian Sea is investigated using historic data that resolve year-to-year changes since 1951, and Argo data since from 2002 to study seasonal changes. From the data changes in heat and freshwater content variability are quantified, and these changes are related to responsible processes that include advection and atmospheric forcing. We present result pointing to the importance of local air-sea fluxes over a range of time scales. Particularly we find that on year-to-year changes the heat fluxes accounts for nearly half of the heat content variability in Atlantic Water. The role of ocean advection is discussed in terms of the two sources; from the North Atlantic and by cross-basin exchange of Arctic water from the Iceland and Greenland Seas.