What is a oceanographic mooring? How do these supplement to the time series in the Arctic? How can these help us understand the changes happening when North Atlantic water that flows into the Arctic is warming, melting the sea ice and changing the delicate arctic ecosystems, currents and water masses?
Nansen Legacy research focus leader, Arild Sundfjord (NPI), together with other Legacy members are featured in a new TV documentary series. Some of the episodes follow an oceanographic research cruise within the A-TWAIN project northeast of Svalbard.
One episode features the recovery of the A-TWAIN oceanographic mooring array, which collects data on the amount of warm Atlantic water entering the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard. This important current bring essential nutrients and a wide range of southern marine species from plankton to fish into the area. Some of this water enters the Barents Sea shelf from the north. The data from A-TWAIN moorings will be analyzed in the Nansen Legacy to establish how this exchange depends on seasonal and inter-annual variability in the Atlantic Water boundary current north of Svalbard.