During the winter months, the sea ice refreezes together and thus the ability to have numerous sea ice drifts decreases due to the increase in overall sea ice extent. Essentially open water drifting decreases substantially during the winter months. The volume export ranges greatly from year to year. It can be as high as 5000 km3/year and as low as 1000 km3/year. Atmospheric forcings also have a strong impact on Arctic Sea Ice export through the EGC. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)/Arctic Oscillation (AO) has a profound impact on the wind field over the Arctic. During high NAO/AO indexes the cyclonic wind field over the Arctic becomes very strong, this transports more ice out through Fram Strait and into the EGC. During low NAO/AO indexes the cyclonic wind field is quite small and thus the transport out of the Fram Strait diminishes greatly. Current research Current research in the EGC is largely focused on freshwater fluxes (in the ocean and also as sea ice). Because the EGC runs through the Greenland Sea and eventually through the Labrador Sea (as the West Greenland Current) it can have strong implications for the strengthening and or weakening of deep water formation in the Greenland and Labrador Seas. The Meridional Overturning Circulation is a density driven circulation in which a small perturbation in the density field could easily slow down or speed up the deep water formation in the Nordic Seas. Jones et al. note that there are three different freshwater sources for the EGC: Pacific water, river runoff, and sea-ice meltwater. They find that the biggest contributor to the freshening of the EGC is due to river runoff, followed by Pacific water, and a distant last is sea-ice meltwater (nearly negligible). They find that even though these sources freshen the EGC, these specific sources do not penetrate very well into the central Greenland Sea where the deep convection takes place. They then decide that there must be some other freshwater influence in the central Greenland Sea. They believe it may be from solid sea ice being transported to the central Greenland Sea and then melting. Solid sea ice is very mobile, and winds can easily direct its flow along with ocean currents. Previous thoughts were that the recirculation of the EGC in the Greenland Sea via the Jan Mayen Fracture Zone helps lead to a freshening of the central Greenland Sea, however, Rudels