Researchers in the US and Canada have proposed a new indicator to chart the progress of climate change, based on the strength of the Arctic “halocline”.
The indicator describes how easy it is for the colder, fresher, surface waters of the Arctic to mix with the warmer, saltier waters below. It’s linked to the loss of Arctic sea ice, according to the researchers.
“We live in times of big changes in the Arctic, and the change of halocline strength plays one of the key roles,” says Igor Polyakov of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, US. “We cannot paint a complete picture of Arctic changes without knowledge of changes in its parts.” […]
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