Simulation of the near-bottom water warming in the Laptev Sea in 2007-2008

The Laptev Sea, one of the most severe Arctic shelf seas is the focus of the international research on account of a pronounced climate change (warming of the atmosphere temperature, lengthening of the summer open-water season, reduction of the ice extent, rapid coastal erosion). In recent years, as compared to the long-term historical data, warming in the near-bottom water of the Laptev Sea with the analysis of hydrographic data was detected. The observations made also provide the evidence of episodic warming in the near-bottom waters recorded in the winter period. In this study, based on the numerical modeling, we are trying to simulate the heat transfer from the sea surface to the bottom layer and to detect the lifetime of the near-bottom temperature anomalies. For our study, we used a high-resolution three-dimensional regional model of the Laptev Sea, nested in a large-scale coupled ice-ocean model of the Arctic and North Atlantic. Carrying out the numerical experiment for the period from September 2006 to September 2008, we have obtained positive temperature anomalies in the near-bottom water in the winter of 2008 caused by the intensive surface warming in the summer of 2007.