The drift data confirm the patterns and slow speeds of theTranspolar Drift Stream and the Beaufort Gyre. Speeds are very slow except for along the North Alaskan coast and especially through the constriction of Fram Strait. The following figure shows average drift vectors for the Arctic region during the colder months. Data for other times of the year are similar in direction but slightly smaller in magnitude. The influence of high pressure over the western Arctic and low pressure over the eastern Arctic is quite apparent in the drift data.
Tides also have important influences upon Arctic sea ice.
The largest tide in the Arctic region is generated in the Atlantic Ocean and enters through Fram Strait. It maintains a general turbulence on the ice shelves and maintains stresses within the ice cover. The redistribution of heat and freshwater not only impact local and regional phenomena, but can also impact the rest of the global ocean by altering the strength of the convection of North Atlantic deep water formation. It is believed, for example, that an increase in freshwater discharge into the North Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic Ocean was responsible for the weakening of the global convection cell.