Abstract

Northwards heat transport from the North Atlantic has been a key driver of climate change in the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas in a process now commonly known as Atlantification. Characteristics of Atlantification in the eastern Arctic include weaker upper ocean stratification, enhanced sea ice melt and warmer SSTs. Some observations point towards these characteristics spreading into the western Arctic, perhaps ’spicing’ up the Beaufort gyre. At the same time, this excess oceanic heat from the Atlantic inflow to the Arctic is thought to be contributing to increase freshwater export to the North Atlantic. That freshwater, in combination with Greenland glacier basal melt driven by recirculating Atlantic water, is simultaneously changing the North Atlantic stratification potentially pushing the upper ocean towards salinity stratification- an Arctification. We present observations that track the changes in stratification in the Beaufort gyre and North Atlantic sites of deep water convection over nearly 3 decades and discuss the relative progress of Atlantification and Arctification.