This quantity of heat (if it were all to be used in melting the ice) is sufficient at 70° north to 

 melt away approximately 4 m of ice or to heat a layer of water 200 m thick 1.5°C. At 80° north it 

 would melt away approximately 2.5 m of ice or would heat the same layer of water 1°C. To this 

 there must be added the heat absorbed (by water and ice) from the air which is carried by the winds 

 from the more southerly and warmer regions. 



In order to emphasize more sharply the total significance of polynyas and water expanses free 

 of ice for the heat conditions of the arctic, the following very approximate calculations are given. 



We have seen that approximately 15 x 10^ cubic km of warm Atlantic water pours into the 

 Norwegian Sea annually. With the lowering of the temperature of this water by 1° approximately 

 15 X 10 kg-cal of heat are set free. 



Under the direct influence of this water, in the Norwegian, Greenland and Barents Seas about 

 2 X 10° square km area never freezes over. By the end of the polar summer this area increases to 

 about 3.5 X 10 square km. If we assume that approximately 30 kg-cal per square cm reach the sea 

 surface in the region of this water in a year and that approximately 24 kg-cal per square cm is 

 absorbed by the water (taking the albedo as equal to 20 per cent), with an area of open water equal 

 to 3. 5 x 10^ square km this amounts to approximately 84 x lO-*^" kg-cal in a year. In other words, 

 even by extremely low calculations, the temperature of the whole mass of Atlantic water is raised 

 by nearly 6° as a result of absorption of only the solar radiation. It is clear that if we take into 

 account the heat absorbed by the polynyas and by the ice itself, and in addition the heat absorbed 

 from the atmosphere, then the importance of the heat brought in by the Atlantic water still further 

 decreases in comparison to the heat which accumulates during the summer in the Arctic Ocean 

 itself. 



It follows from the foregoing computation that the significance of the Spitzbergen and Nor- 

 wegian currents, Siberian rivers and Pacific water (flowing into the Arctic Basin through the Bering 

 Straits) lie not only in the fact that huge quantities of heat which have accumulated in the more 

 southerly latitudes are carried into the Arctic Basin by these currents, but also in the fact that the 

 open sea areas, free of ice, which are created by these currents at the beginning of spring, become 

 excellent accumulators of heat . 



Table 91 gives the temperature observations of the Far Easterner on 17 August 1932 in the 

 Chuckchee Sea at 67 ° 36' north, 166° 27 ' east. Three days earlier the average temperature for the 

 same depths at the warmest station in the Bering Straits was approximately 5°. This alone proves 

 that the high temperatures at the aforementioned station are the result of local warming. 



TABLE 91. WATER TEMPERATURES AT 67° 36' NORTH, 166° 27' EAST 



Depth in meters 5 10 15 20 25 30 40 50 



Temperature in 



degrees C. 9.9 9.9 8.7 5.5 4.5 4.6 4.8 4.7 4.8 



Average temperature at this station to a depth of 40 m equals 6.3°. 



The latter phenomenon becomes still more understandable if we recall that from the conditions 

 of equilibrium of a water-ice system it follows that the mass of ice melted by the thermal action of 

 the water is directly proportional to the mass of water which is involved in the process. 



320 



