Catalogus

The discussion is supplemented by a sensitivity study, where various windstress estimations are applied to force a coupled ocean–ice snow model. Differences with respect to ice conditions, surface salinity, freshwater and heat contents, integrated over the top 1000 m, are evaluated. Over the range of windspeed and stress estimates, ice thickness varies by 1.5 m, differences in freshwater content are about 4 m in the Canada Basin and deviations in the vertically integrated heat content reach up to 2.8 GJ m⁻² in the Eurasian and 1.0 GJ m⁻² in the Canada Basin. It is shown that the difference in windstress magnitude takes over an important role. A reduction of the windstress magnitude by 25% leads to a decrease in ice thickness of almost 1.0 m in the Canada Basin and reduces Fram Strait ice export by about 450 km³ year⁻¹. It also leads to a decrease of about 2 m in the vertically integrated freshwater content of the central Canada Basin and an increase of 0.4 GJ m⁻² in the corresponding heat content.