News 2007

1 June 2007

During the winter 2005/06, periods of sustained northerly winds generated cross-shelf exchange causing extensive flooding of the coastal waters with warm Atlantic Water from the West Spitsbergen Current (the last leg of the Gulf Current system). The seawater winter temperature of the West Spitsbergen Shelf and fjords reverted to that typically of fall, interrupting the normal cycle of ice formation in the region.