The entire area of the Arctic Basin together with its seas is about 8, 800, 000 square km, and 

 the White Sea, with an area of ~ 95, 000 square km can be counted as ice covered in winter. The ice 

 area of the Barents Sea toward the end of winter is, on an average, ~ 1, 000, 000 square km. The ice 

 area of the Greenland Sea in April-May reaches 900, 000 square km. The total ice area for the 

 whole Arctic Ocean in winter reaches 10, 800, 000 square km. 



By the end of summer, an average of 1, 500, 000 square km of ice melts in the Arctic Basin, 

 about 95, 000 square km in the White Sea, and around 250, 000 square km in the Barents. Further, 

 over 1, 250, 000 square km of ice is carried off annually from the Arctic Basin into the Greenland 

 Sea, where, fundamentally, it melts. Thus, by tlie end of the polar summer, the ice area of the 

 Arctic Ocean decreases to 8, 000, 000 square km, due to melting. 



About 150, 000 cubic km of warm and saline Atlantic waters flow into the Norwegian Sea 

 annually. According to Helland-Hansen's calculation, if these waters were cooled only 1°, the heat 

 released would be sufficient to raise the temperature of a 4 km layer of air over all Europe by 10°. 

 It is not hard to see that the heat released by a 1° cooling of these 150, 000 cubic km of water would 

 be almost enough to melt all the ice transported annually from the Arctic Basin into the Greenland 

 Sea. 



The Atlantic waters are carried to the northern shores of Spitsbergen and the eastern shores 

 of Novaya Zemlya by the surface current. Somewhat to the north of Spitsbergen these waters sink 

 and continue as a deep-water current. 



According to available observations, Atlantic waters are found at intermediate depths every- 

 where in the deep parts of the Arctic Basui, while in some regions they are found on the continental 

 shoal. 



Atlantic waters are characterized not only by high temperature but by high salinity. There- 

 fore, when their temperature is high they remain at the surface of the ocean. When the tempera- 

 ture drops, they become heavier than tlie lower-lying waters and mix with them. Consequently, 

 with any drop in temperature, enormous masses of water are drawn into a heat exchange with the 

 atmosphere. 



The co-existence of such different streams as the warm Atlantic Current (which passes along 

 the western shores of Norway and Spitsbergen) and the cold Greenland Current (which passes along 

 the eastern coast of Greenland and carries with it the ice of the Arctic Basin) in relatively close 

 proximity in the North European Basin creates unusually great surface-temperature differences and 

 the world's most remarkable thermal anomalies. 



One need only point out that the air temperature in January in the eastern part of the Nortli 

 European Basin is 20° higher than is to be ex-pected at that geographic latitude. 



The sea off the western shores of Spitsbergen remains unfrozen right up to 80° north. Ice 

 can always be encountered at the southern edge of the Greenland Sea and along the east coast of 

 Greenland. The influence of this ice and the ice carried out from Baffin Bay is felt much further 

 south, as far as 40-50° north. Nowhere else on earth does one find the simultaneous existence 

 of such conditions. This causes strong atmospheric perturbations over the North European Basin 

 and somewhat farther south. The Islandic minimum with its branches is located here; it forms a 

 special center of atmospheric activity. The basic water masses of the Arctic Ocean also form here, 

 as we will see below; hence, this is also a special center of oceanic activity. 



