Secret history of the climate

We know that the world climate has undergone a number of rapid changes in the past. But how did these occur, and are conditions such that they could occur again?

The Bjerknes Centre is responsible for the coordinated national Norwegian Ocean and Climate Project (NOClim), whose main aim is to offer us a better understanding of oceanic heat transport to the Nordic seas, and how this affects atmospheric heat transport. Scientists from a number of Norwegian institutions are participating in the project, in close collaboration with other international research groups.

“Among other things, we want to measure the inflow of warm highly saline water to the Nordic seas. We intend to make simultaneous measurements in our own waters and off Canada and Greenland , in order to find out what is happening in these different regions,” says project manager Peter M. Haugan of the Bjerknes Centre.

At the same time, the project will map rapid climate changes in the past and try to identify their causes. The palaeoclimatologists are studying what happened to the inflow off the Faeroes and Shetland at the end of the last Ice Age. This region was marked by rapid changes, and there are ocean fronts where ice water from Greenland meets warmer water on its way north. By taking sediment samples, we can describe fairly accurately what happened, which in turn can tell us something about what could take place in the future.

Thawing and freezing processes in the Arctic are another element of the project.

“The ice has a great deal of infl uence on circulation, but many climate models are rather poor at dealing with sea ice. When seawater freezes, the layers of water that do not freeze become saltier and heavier, and sink towards the bottom. The relationship between surface water and the deep sea is determined by whether the water is heavy or light, and it is water from the polar region that fills up the oceans of the world. But will this process continue? Will the great volumes of deep water still be renewed? If the ice retreats as a result of continued global warming, how will the major current systems react”?

The scientists are trying to learn more about the forces that control the different types of ice, and how they behave, by means of field studies in areas where the ice freezes and melts every year. At the same time, they are studying the vertical mixing processes that take place between warm and cold water and salty and fresh water.

“We hope that when NOClim comes to an end in 2006, we will have made good progress in understanding how ice is formed. But we also hope that these key measurements will be able to continue after the end of the project. It is important to monitor the polar region in order to be able to detect any early signs of climate change. In any case, NOClim is unique in that it integrates climate models, palaeoclimatic studies and contemporary measurements. One obvious goal of the project is to improve our current climate models,” says Haugan.

The NOClim project runs until the end of 2006

Lead institution: The Bjerknes Centre

Partners: These include the Institute of Marine Research , the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Nansen Center , the University of Cambridge , the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.

Funding from the Research Council of Norway in 2005:

NOK 4,474,000, plus NOK 6,388,000 to ProClim, which is a subproject within NOClim. The project has its focus on understanding climatic processes in the Arctic , with special emphasis on the western part of the Barents Sea , the Svalbard region and the Greenland Sea.

Back to front page

To order a free example of the paper edition of Features, contact the Communication and Media Centre either by e.mail or telephone +47 55 58 69 00