Winter Atlantic Water intrusions in Kongsfjorden: atmospheric triggering and oceanic preconditioning

Kongsfjorden is an Arctic fjord in Svalbard facing the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) transporting warm and salty Atlantic Water (AW) through the Fram Strait to the Arctic. In this work, winter AW intrusions in Kongsfjorden occurring in the 2010-2020 decade are assessed by means of oceanographic and atmospheric observations, provided by in-situ instrumentations and reanalysis products. Winter AW intrusions are relatively common events, bringing heat and salt from the open ocean to the fjord interior; they are characterized by water temperatures rising by 1-2 °C in just a few days. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain winter AW intrusions in West Spitsbergen fjords, tracing back to the occurrence of energetic wind events along the shelf slope. Here we demonstrate that the ocean plays a fundamental role as well in regulating the inflow of AW toward Kongsfjorden in winter.

Winter AW intrusions in 2011, 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2020 occurred by means of upwelling from the WSC, triggered by large southerly winds blowing on the West Spitsbergen Shelf (WSS) followed by a circulation reversal with northerly winds. Southerly winds are generated by the setup of a high pressure anomaly over the Barents Sea. In these winters, fjord waters are fresher and less dense than the AW current, resulting in the breakdown of the geostrophic control mechanism at the fjord mouth, allowing AW to enter Kongsfjorden. The low salinity signal is found also on the WSS and hence is related to the particular properties of the Spitsbergen Polar Current (SPC). The freshwater signal is hypothesized to be linked to the sea-ice production and melting in the Storfjorden and Barents Sea regions, as well as the accumulation of glaciers’ runoff. The freshwater transport toward West Spitsbergen is thus the key preconditioning factor allowing winter AW intrusions in Kongsfjorden by upwelling, whilst energetic atmospheric phenomena trigger the intrusions. 

Winter 2014 AW intrusion shows a different dynamic, i.e., an extensive downwelling of warm waters in the fjord lasting several weeks. Here, long-lasting southerly winds stack surface waters toward the coast. The fjord density is larger than the WSC density, forcing the AW intrusion to occur near the surface, then spreading vertically over the water column due to heat loss to the atmosphere. We hypothesize the combination of sustained Ekman transport and the shallower height of the WSC on the water column to be the key factor explaining the AW intrusion in this winter. 

After mixing with the initial AW inflow, fjord waters undergo heat loss to the atmosphere and densification. The water column becomes denser than the WSC, restoring the geostrophic control mechanism and blocking further intrusions of AW.