To calculate the water temperature of the White Sea we used two models of large-scale hydro-and thermal dynamics, maintained by the authors. Comparing two models, we show that the first one describes summer hydrophysical conditions better, while the second model is better for winter conditions. Now we are trying to improve and combine two models in order to describe the state of the Sea more accurately.

Analysis of the monthly average surface air temperature (SAT) data of the White Sea showed its significant growth over the past decades. Against the background of this growth, the interannual variability was revealed with periods close to the periods of El Niño – Southern Oscillation (2-7 years) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (7-10 years). The effect of these oscillations on the interannual variability of the SAT of the White Sea is shown and the periods of their synchronization and desynchronization are found. During the periods of 1960s and from the second half of the 1980s to the mid-2010s during the El Niño events in the White Sea negative SAT anomalies were usually observed, and during the La Niña events – positive anomalies. In the period from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, NAO had a strong positive effect on the SAT anomalies of the White Sea, in the second half of the 1990s this influence changed its sign, but from the beginning of the 2000s it became positive again.

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The White Sea is a small shallow semi-closed sea in the North-West of Russia. It is strongly affected by induced tides, so the tidal motion dominates in the sea. Sea ice is seasonal and the water salinity is less than in the neighbouring Barents sea due to strong river discharge. We review the sources of in-situ and satellite data that are available for the sea, and describe those few numerical models, together with the challenges that are faced. We focus on the large-scale circulation and thermohaline fields, but also cover sea ice, river runoff, and pelagic biogeochemical data.