TABLE 120. AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF SURFACE WATER 



TABLE 121. AVERAGE TEMPERATURES OF SURFACE WATER 

 IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL 



The decrease in ice abundance has been felt in an increase in amplitudes of tides (which are 

 generally dampened by the ice cover). For example, Vize shows that on Franz Joseph Land and on 

 Dickson Island the amplitudes of the tide have increased by 20 per cent to 30 per cent during the 

 period of warming of the arctic. 



5. Increase in speed of drift of ice. The main mass of ice in the Greenland Sea is carried 

 there from the Arctic Basin. The decrease in its quantity is likewise connected with an increase in 

 speed and rise in temperature of the Norwegian and Spitzbergen currents, and with wind action. At 

 first glance it would appear, however, that a decrease in ice abundance in the Greenland Sea should 

 indicate a decrease in transfer of ice into the Greenland Sea from the Arctic Basin. The facts, 

 however, Indicate the reverse. During recent years Soviet sea expeditions have thrown out numer- 

 ous buoys in the Greenland, Barents and Kara Seas in order to study sea currents and the drift of 

 sea ice. Many of these buoys were subsequently found on the shores of Greenland, Iceland and 

 Norway, and it turned out that all the buoys which were put out after 1933, upon calculation, show 

 speeds of current and drift three to four times greater than before 1933. The drift speed of the 

 station "North Pole" was 2.4 times greater than had been expected. The Sedou drift began and 

 ended considerably further south than the Fram drift and ran further north, but the Fran drift 

 lasted 1,055 days while the Sedov drift lasted only 812 days. 



The decrease in ice quantity in the Greenland Sea along with the increase in transfer of ice 

 into this sea from the Arctic Basin unquestionably shows a considerable intensification of the fac- 

 tors which determine the destruction and melting of ice in this sea, or in other words, an intensifi- 

 cation of the appropriate action of atmosphere and ocean. 



6. Change in cyclone routes. There is no doubt that the increase in air temperatures, in- 

 crease in Atlantic water temperatures, intensification of ice drift, etc. are closely connected with 

 an intensification of atmospheric circulation, and in particular with a change in cyclonic activity in 

 the high latitudes . 



Vize shows that the Atlantic cyclones are now shifting considerably north (by several hundred 

 km) from their courses in the period before the warming of the arctic. This is felt in changes in 

 wind conditions. For example, in Yugorski Shar before 1920 winds of easterly components (cold) 

 prevailed, while after 1920 southwesterly winds (warm) began to prevail. 



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