Parts of the discovery were published in a study in the journal Nature communications earlier this week.

One of the researchers behind it, Stefanie Semper, describes for NRK how the starting point was to learn more about how the system with underwater currents actually works.

- Now we have put a new ocean current on the map, she says.

Transports cold water

Unlike one of the most famous ocean currents, the Gulf Stream, it transports cold instead of warm water.

It is when the warm water has been carried north, sinking and cooling that it is transported back in the current that Semper and her research colleagues have now found.

Another study has tried to find the northern starting point of the stream, a point that is believed to be somewhere in the Greenland Sea.

Predicts the future by examining the currents

The worldwide network of ocean currents is an important part of the Earth's climate system.

By bringing warmer water to northern latitudes, for example, they make temperatures in countries such as Sweden and Norway significantly higher, despite the proximity to the Arctic.

If and in that case how they change is therefore important knowledge, Stefanie Semper tells NRK.

- I think that if we really want to predict what the future will look like, we must know more about how the oceans and currents work today.