The Transpolar Drift Stream is a major ocean current

Ocean current

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun...

 of the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

. Discovered in 1937 by Pyotr Shirshov

Pyotr Shirshov

Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov was a Ukrainian Soviet oceanographer, hydrobiologist, polar explorer, statesman, academician , and Hero of the Soviet Union .Pyotr Shirshov graduated from the Odessa Public Education Institute in 1929...

 at the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 drift ice station North Pole-1

North Pole-1

North Pole-1 was the first Soviet manned drifting station, primarily used for research.North Pole-1 was established on May 21, 1937, and officially opened on June 6, some from the North Pole by the expedition into the high latitudes Sever-1, led by Otto Schmidt. The expedition had been airlifted...

, it conveys water in roughly two major routes to the northern Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 at a rate of about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) per day. Primarily wind-driven, it flows roughly from the northern coast of Russia and Alaska to the Atlantic Ocean. It has been cited as a major factor in the North Atlantic Oscillation

North Atlantic oscillation

The North Atlantic oscillation is a climatic phenomenon in the North Atlantic Ocean of fluctuations in the difference of atmospheric pressure at sea level between the Icelandic low and the Azores high. Through east-west oscillation motions of the Icelandic low and the Azores high, it controls the...

 and Arctic oscillation

Arctic oscillation

The Arctic oscillation or Northern Annular Mode/Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode is an index of the dominant pattern of non-seasonal sea-level pressure variations north of 20N latitude, and it is characterized by pressure anomalies of one sign in the Arctic with the opposite anomalies centered...

atmospheric changes.