Oceanography from Space

A powerful combination of data from NASA satellites and traditional sampling has led to the discovery of a new pathway of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean. Knowing the pathways of freshwater is important to understanding global climate because freshwater protects sea ice by helping create a strongly stratified cold layer between the ice and warmer, saltier water below that comes into the Arctic from the Atlantic Ocean, according to Jamie Morison of the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory in Seattle. Morison and co-authors from the UW and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory published their findings in the Jan. 5, 2012 edition of Nature.

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• James Morison
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• Matthew Alkire
• Roger Andersen
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• Michael Steele
• Applied Physics Laboratory
• University of Washington
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