Unusual Baltic inflow activity in 2002-2003 and varying deep-water properties

The unusual sequence of inflow events into the Baltic Sea that occurred in 2002 and 2003 includes the first ever important baroclinic inflow to be described (August 2002), the Major Baltic Inflow (January 2003), which gave rise to the highest oxygen levels in the Gotland Deep since the 1930s, and the baroclinic inflow (August 2003) that elevated the Gotland Basin deep water salinity to values last observed in 1977, and caused the surface salinity to rise again. From these trend changes, salt residence times were estimated at about 20 years in the deep waters and 30 years above the pycnocline. Ventilation of the remote Karlsö Deep took until 2005, two years after the inflow event responsible, at a time when the Bornholm and Eastern Gotland Basins were already returning to stagnation.