44 



BJØRN HELLAND-HANSEN AND FRIDTJOF NANSEN. 



M.-N. Kl. 



Fig. 34. Curve I : Temperature- Anomaly of Spitsbergen Atlan- The aboVG varia- 



tic Current in southern region between Bear Island and southern , . ^ i • 1 



Q ■. K / 1 * .u 1 f.i /- IT M A If tions found in the tem- 



bpitsbergen (scale to the left). Curve u: Mean Anomaly of 



Air-Temperature during the two preceding winters (from Dec. i perature Ol the opits- 

 to May 31) at the five northern Meteorological Stations of hero'en Atlantic Current 

 Norway (scale to the right). 



also agree with the 

 J 1278 1896 1898 1899 1900 1901 1910 . . . , ,. . 



JTjSl. — I i 1 r 1 1 1 — I variations in the distri- 

 bution of ice in the 

 Barents and Spitsberg- 

 en Seas, as far as we 

 know them. In our 

 memoir on the Norwe- 

 gian Sea [1909, pp. 189 

 ct seq^^ it was pointed 

 out that the annual 

 variations in the distri- 

 bution of ice in the 

 Barents Sea in May 

 seem to agree to some 

 extent with the varia- 

 tions in the temperature 

 of the Atlantic Current in the Lofoten section one year earlier, and in the 

 Sognefjord section two years earlier. We might then expect a similar agree- 

 ment between these variations in the distribution of the ice and the variations 

 in the temperature of the Spitsbergen Current of the same year, be- 

 cause the water will probably need about the same time to reach the 

 central region of the Barents Sea and the northern region west of Spits- 

 bergen. The following table gives the areas of open water in the Barents 

 Sea east of 20^ E. Long, in May, and the anomalies of the temperature 

 of the Spitsbergen Current in the same years. For 1900 and 1901 we 

 had to use the values from the southern region of the current; this may 

 perhaps be the explanation why the values of these years do not agree 

 as well as the others. 



190& 

 -10 



