scholarly journals Evaluating Impacts of Recent Arctic Sea Ice Loss on the Northern Hemisphere Winter Climate Change

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 3255-3263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumiaki Ogawa ◽  
Noel Keenlyside ◽  
Yongqi Gao ◽  
Torben Koenigk ◽  
Shuting Yang ◽  
...  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (15) ◽  
pp. 5513-5532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhe Han ◽  
Shuanglin Li ◽  
Jiping Liu ◽  
Yongqi Gao ◽  
Ping Zhao

Abstract Both Arctic sea ice loss and La Niña events can result in cold conditions in midlatitude Eurasia in winter. Since the two forcings sometimes occur simultaneously, determining whether they are independent of each other is undertaken first. The result suggests an overall independence. Considering possible interactions between them, their coordinated impacts on the Northern Hemisphere winter climate are then investigated based on observational data analyses, historical simulation analyses from one coupled model (MPI-ESM-LR) contributing to CMIP5, and atmospheric general circulation model sensitive experiments in ECHAM5. The results show that the impacts of the two forcings are overall linearly accumulated. In comparison with one single forcing, there is intensified cooling response in midlatitude Eurasia along with northern warmer–southern cooler dipolar temperature responses over North America. Despite the additive linearity, additive nonlinearity between the two forcings is identifiable. The nonlinearity causes midlatitude Eurasian cooling weakened by one-tenth to one-fifth as much as their individual impacts in combination. The underlying mechanisms for the weak additive nonlinearity are finally explored by transient adjustment AGCM runs with one single forcing or both the forcings switched on suddenly. The day-to-day evolution of responses suggests that the additive nonlinearity may arise initially from the forced wave dynamics and then be amplified because of the involvement of transient eddy feedbacks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Acosta Navarro ◽  
P. Ortega ◽  
L. Batté ◽  
D. Smith ◽  
P. A. Bretonnière ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Levine ◽  
Ivana Cvijanovic ◽  
Pablo Ortega ◽  
Markus Donat

<p>Climate models predict that sea ice cover will shrink--even disappear-- in most regions of the Arctic basin by the end of the century, triggering local and remote responses in the surface climate via atmospheric and oceanic circulation changes. In particular, it has been suggested that seasonal anomalies over Europe and North America in recent years could have been caused by record low Arctic sea ice cover. Despite an intense research effort toward quantifying its effect, the contribution of regional sea ice loss to climate change and its mechanisms of action remain controversial. </p><p>In this study, we prescribe sea ice loss in individual sectors of the Arctic within a climate model, and study its effect on climatic anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere. Using the EC-EARTH3.3 model in its atmospheric-only and fully coupled configuration, and following the PAMIP protocol, sea ice cover is set to either its present day state, or a hypothetical future distribution of reduced sea ice cover in the Arctic. This pan-Arctic sea ice loss experiment is then complemented by 8 regional sea ice loss experiments.</p><p>Comparing those experiments, we assess the contribution of sea ice loss in each region of the Arctic to climate change over Europe, Siberia and North America. We find that sea ice loss in some sectors of the Arctic appears to matter more for Northern Hemisphere climate change than others, even after normalizing for differences in surface cover. Furthermore, the climatic effect of regional sea ice loss is compared to that of a pan-Arctic sea ice loss, whose associated climate anomalies are found to be strikingly different from that expected from a simple linear response to regional sea ice loss. We propose a mechanism for this nonlinear climate response to regional sea ice loss, which considers regional differences in the strength of the thermal inversion over the Arctic, as well as the relative proximity of each Arctic region to features critical for stationary wave genesis (e.g. the Tibetan plateau).</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (17) ◽  
pp. 6841-6858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingyi Wu ◽  
Jingzhi Su ◽  
Rosanne D’Arrigo

Abstract This paper describes two dominant patterns of Asian winter climate variability: the Siberian high (SH) pattern and the Asia–Arctic (AA) pattern. The former depicts atmospheric variability closely associated with the intensity of the Siberian high, and the latter characterizes the teleconnection pattern of atmospheric variability between Asia and the Arctic, which is distinct from the Arctic Oscillation (AO). The AA pattern plays more important roles in regulating winter precipitation and the 850-hPa meridional wind component over East Asia than the SH pattern, which controls surface air temperature variability over East Asia. In the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas, sea ice loss in both autumn and winter could bring the positive phase of the SH pattern or cause the negative phase of the AA pattern. The latter corresponds to a weakened East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and enhanced winter precipitation in the midlatitudes of the Asian continent and East Asia. For the SH pattern, sea ice loss in the prior autumn emerges in the Siberian marginal seas, and winter loss mainly occurs in the Barents Sea, Labrador Sea, and Davis Strait. For the AA pattern, sea ice loss in the prior autumn is observed in the Barents–Kara Seas, the western Laptev Sea, and the Beaufort Sea, and winter loss only occurs in some areas of the Barents Sea, the Labrador Sea, and Davis Strait. Simulation experiments with observed sea ice forcing also support that Arctic sea ice loss may favor frequent occurrence of the negative phase of the AA pattern. The results also imply that the relationship between Arctic sea ice loss and winter atmospheric variability over East Asia is unstable, which is a challenge for predicting the EAWM based on Arctic sea ice loss.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 3693-3713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Oudar ◽  
Emilia Sanchez-Gomez ◽  
Fabrice Chauvin ◽  
Julien Cattiaux ◽  
Laurent Terray ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier J. Levine ◽  
Ivana Cvijanovic ◽  
Pablo Ortega ◽  
Markus G. Donat ◽  
Etienne Tourigny

AbstractArctic sea-ice loss is a consequence of anthropogenic global warming and can itself be a driver of climate change in the Arctic and at lower latitudes, with sea-ice minima likely favoring extreme events over Europe and North America. Yet the role that the sea-ice plays in ongoing climate change remains uncertain, partly due to a limited understanding of whether and how the exact geographical distribution of sea-ice loss impacts climate. Here we demonstrate that the climate response to sea-ice loss can vary widely depending on the pattern of sea-ice change, and show that this is due to the presence of an atmospheric feedback mechanism that amplifies the local and remote signals when broader scale sea-ice loss occurs. Our study thus highlights the need to better constrain the spatial pattern of future sea-ice when assessing its impacts on the climate in the Arctic and beyond.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (19) ◽  
pp. 7823-7843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lantao Sun ◽  
Michael Alexander ◽  
Clara Deser

The role of transient Arctic sea ice loss in the projected greenhouse gas–induced late-twentieth- to late-twenty-first-century climate change is investigated using the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory’s Coupled Model version 3. Two sets of simulations have been conducted, one with representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 radiative forcing and the second with RCP forcing but with Arctic sea ice nudged to its 1990 state. The difference between the two five-member sets indicates the influence of decreasing Arctic sea ice on the climate system. Within the Arctic, sea ice loss is found to be a primary driver of the surface temperature and precipitation changes. Arctic sea ice depletion also plays a dominant role in projected Atlantic meridional overturning circulation weakening and changes in North Atlantic extratropical sea surface temperature and salinity, especially in the first half century. The effect of present-day Arctic sea ice loss on Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropical atmospheric circulation is small relative to internal variability and the future sea ice loss effect on atmospheric circulation is distinct from the projected anthropogenic change. Arctic sea ice loss warms NH extratropical continents and is an important contributor to global warming not only over high latitudes but also in the eastern United States. Last, the Arctic sea ice loss displaces the Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) equatorward and induces a “mini-global warming” in the tropical upper troposphere.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 945-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. McKenna ◽  
Thomas J. Bracegirdle ◽  
Emily F. Shuckburgh ◽  
Peter H. Haynes ◽  
Manoj M. Joshi

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