title: Dilution of the northern North Atlantic Ocean in recent decades.
abstract: Declining salinities signify that large amounts of fresh water have been added to the northern North Atlantic Ocean since the mid-1960s. We estimate that the Nordic Seas and Subpolar Basins were diluted by an extra 19,000 +/- 5000 cubic kilometers of freshwater input between 1965 and 1995. Fully half of that additional fresh water-about 10,000 cubic kilometers-infiltrated the system in the late 1960s at an approximate rate of 2000 cubic kilometers per year. Patterns of freshwater accumulation observed in the Nordic Seas suggest a century time scale to reach freshening thresholds critical to that portion of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.
authors.affiliation: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. rcurry@whoi.edu
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Curry
authors.forename: Cecilie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mauritzen