scholarly journals Arctic Sea Ice Decline Significantly Contributed to the Unprecedented Liquid Freshwater Accumulation in the Beaufort Gyre of the Arctic Ocean

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 4956-4964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Claudia Wekerle ◽  
Sergey Danilov ◽  
Nikolay Koldunov ◽  
Dmitry Sidorenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Beaufort Gyre ◽  
Sea Ice Decline ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

scholarly journals Intensification of the Atlantic Water Supply to the Arctic Ocean Through Fram Strait Induced by Arctic Sea Ice Decline

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Claudia Wekerle ◽  
Xuezhu Wang ◽  
Sergey Danilov ◽  
Nikolay Koldunov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Sea Ice Decline ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

scholarly journals Intensification of the Atlantic Water supply to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait induced by Arctic sea ice decline

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Claudia Wekerle ◽  
Xuezhu Wang ◽  
S. Danilov ◽  
Nikolay V. Koldunov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Fram Strait ◽  
Sea Ice Decline ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

scholarly journals On the Link between Arctic Sea Ice Decline and the Freshwater Content of the Beaufort Gyre: Insights from a Simple Process Model

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (21) ◽  
pp. 8170-8184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter E. D. Davis ◽  
Camille Lique ◽  
Helen L. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Momentum Transfer ◽  
Momentum Flux ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Simple Process ◽  
Beaufort Gyre ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract Recent satellite and hydrographic observations have shown that the rate of freshwater accumulation in the Beaufort Gyre of the Arctic Ocean has accelerated over the past decade. This acceleration has coincided with the dramatic decline observed in Arctic sea ice cover, which is expected to modify the efficiency of momentum transfer into the upper ocean. Here, a simple process model is used to investigate the dynamical response of the Beaufort Gyre to the changing efficiency of momentum transfer, and its link with the enhanced accumulation of freshwater. A linear relationship is found between the annual mean momentum flux and the amount of freshwater accumulated in the Beaufort Gyre. In the model, both the response time scale and the total quantity of freshwater accumulated are determined by a balance between Ekman pumping and an eddy-induced volume flux toward the boundary, highlighting the importance of eddies in the adjustment of the Arctic Ocean to a change in forcing. When the seasonal cycle in the efficiency of momentum transfer is modified (but the annual mean momentum flux is held constant), it has no effect on the accumulation of freshwater, although it does impact the timing and amplitude of the annual cycle in Beaufort Gyre freshwater content. This suggests that the decline in Arctic sea ice cover may have an impact on the magnitude and seasonality of the freshwater export into the North Atlantic.

scholarly journals Attribution of the Recent Winter Sea Ice Decline over the Atlantic Sector of the Arctic Ocean*

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 4027-4033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doo-Sun R. Park ◽  
Sukyoung Lee ◽  
Steven B. Feldstein
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Ir Radiation ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
Sea Ice Decline ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract Wintertime Arctic sea ice extent has been declining since the late twentieth century, particularly over the Atlantic sector that encompasses the Barents–Kara Seas and Baffin Bay. This sea ice decline is attributable to various Arctic environmental changes, such as enhanced downward infrared (IR) radiation, preseason sea ice reduction, enhanced inflow of warm Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean, and sea ice export. However, their relative contributions are uncertain. Utilizing ERA-Interim and satellite-based data, it is shown here that a positive trend of downward IR radiation accounts for nearly half of the sea ice concentration (SIC) decline during the 1979–2011 winter over the Atlantic sector. Furthermore, the study shows that the Arctic downward IR radiation increase is driven by horizontal atmospheric water flux and warm air advection into the Arctic, not by evaporation from the Arctic Ocean. These findings suggest that most of the winter SIC trends can be attributed to changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulations.

scholarly journals Arctic Sea Ice Retreat in 2007 Follows Thinning Trend

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Lindsay ◽  
J. Zhang ◽  
A. Schweiger ◽  
M. Steele ◽  
H. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ice Thickness ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Pacific Side ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

Abstract The minimum of Arctic sea ice extent in the summer of 2007 was unprecedented in the historical record. A coupled ice–ocean model is used to determine the state of the ice and ocean over the past 29 yr to investigate the causes of this ice extent minimum within a historical perspective. It is found that even though the 2007 ice extent was strongly anomalous, the loss in total ice mass was not. Rather, the 2007 ice mass loss is largely consistent with a steady decrease in ice thickness that began in 1987. Since then, the simulated mean September ice thickness within the Arctic Ocean has declined from 3.7 to 2.6 m at a rate of −0.57 m decade−1. Both the area coverage of thin ice at the beginning of the melt season and the total volume of ice lost in the summer have been steadily increasing. The combined impact of these two trends caused a large reduction in the September mean ice concentration in the Arctic Ocean. This created conditions during the summer of 2007 that allowed persistent winds to push the remaining ice from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side of the basin and more than usual into the Greenland Sea. This exposed large areas of open water, resulting in the record ice extent anomaly.

scholarly journals Impact of Variable Atmospheric and Oceanic Form Drag on Simulations of Arctic Sea Ice*

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1329-1353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Tsamados ◽  
Daniel L. Feltham ◽  
David Schroeder ◽  
Daniela Flocco ◽  
Sinead L. Farrell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Form Drag ◽  
Drag Coefficients ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Range Of Values

Abstract Over Arctic sea ice, pressure ridges and floe and melt pond edges all introduce discrete obstructions to the flow of air or water past the ice and are a source of form drag. In current climate models form drag is only accounted for by tuning the air–ice and ice–ocean drag coefficients, that is, by effectively altering the roughness length in a surface drag parameterization. The existing approach of the skin drag parameter tuning is poorly constrained by observations and fails to describe correctly the physics associated with the air–ice and ocean–ice drag. Here, the authors combine recent theoretical developments to deduce the total neutral form drag coefficients from properties of the ice cover such as ice concentration, vertical extent and area of the ridges, freeboard and floe draft, and the size of floes and melt ponds. The drag coefficients are incorporated into the Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE) and show the influence of the new drag parameterization on the motion and state of the ice cover, with the most noticeable being a depletion of sea ice over the west boundary of the Arctic Ocean and over the Beaufort Sea. The new parameterization allows the drag coefficients to be coupled to the sea ice state and therefore to evolve spatially and temporally. It is found that the range of values predicted for the drag coefficients agree with the range of values measured in several regions of the Arctic. Finally, the implications of the new form drag formulation for the spinup or spindown of the Arctic Ocean are discussed.

scholarly journals Natural variability of the Arctic Ocean sea ice during the present interglacial

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (42) ◽  
pp. 26069-26075
Author(s):  
Anne de Vernal ◽  
Claude Hillaire-Marcel ◽  
Cynthia Le Duc ◽  
Philippe Roberge ◽  
Camille Brice ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Natural Variability ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Lomonosov Ridge ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Open Question ◽  
The Impact

The impact of the ongoing anthropogenic warming on the Arctic Ocean sea ice is ascertained and closely monitored. However, its long-term fate remains an open question as its natural variability on centennial to millennial timescales is not well documented. Here, we use marine sedimentary records to reconstruct Arctic sea-ice fluctuations. Cores collected along the Lomonosov Ridge that extends across the Arctic Ocean from northern Greenland to the Laptev Sea were radiocarbon dated and analyzed for their micropaleontological and palynological contents, both bearing information on the past sea-ice cover. Results demonstrate that multiyear pack ice remained a robust feature of the western and central Lomonosov Ridge and that perennial sea ice remained present throughout the present interglacial, even during the climate optimum of the middle Holocene that globally peaked ∼6,500 y ago. In contradistinction, the southeastern Lomonosov Ridge area experienced seasonally sea-ice-free conditions, at least, sporadically, until about 4,000 y ago. They were marked by relatively high phytoplanktonic productivity and organic carbon fluxes at the seafloor resulting in low biogenic carbonate preservation. These results point to contrasted west–east surface ocean conditions in the Arctic Ocean, not unlike those of the Arctic dipole linked to the recent loss of Arctic sea ice. Hence, our data suggest that seasonally ice-free conditions in the southeastern Arctic Ocean with a dominant Arctic dipolar pattern, may be a recurrent feature under “warm world” climate.

scholarly journals Nudging the Arctic Ocean to Quantify Sea Ice Feedbacks

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 2381-2395
Author(s):  
Evelien Dekker ◽  
Richard Bintanja ◽  
Camiel Severijns
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Climate Sensitivity ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Climate Response ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean

AbstractWith Arctic summer sea ice potentially disappearing halfway through this century, the surface albedo and insulating effects of Arctic sea ice will decrease considerably. The ongoing Arctic sea ice retreat also affects the strength of the Planck, lapse rate, cloud, and surface albedo feedbacks together with changes in the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, but their combined effect on climate sensitivity has not been quantified. This study presents an estimate of all Arctic sea ice related climate feedbacks combined. We use a new method to keep Arctic sea ice at its present-day (PD) distribution under a changing climate in a 50-yr CO2 doubling simulation, using a fully coupled global climate model (EC-Earth, version 2.3). We nudge the Arctic Ocean to the (monthly dependent) year 2000 mean temperature and minimum salinity fields on a mask representing PD sea ice cover. We are able to preserve about 95% of the PD mean March and 77% of the September PD Arctic sea ice extent by applying this method. Using simulations with and without nudging, we estimate the climate response associated with Arctic sea ice changes. The Arctic sea ice feedback globally equals 0.28 ± 0.15 W m−2 K−1. The total sea ice feedback thus amplifies the climate response for a doubling of CO2, in line with earlier findings. Our estimate of the Arctic sea ice feedback agrees reasonably well with earlier CMIP5 global climate feedback estimates and shows that the Arctic sea ice exerts a considerable effect on the Arctic and global climate sensitivity.

Dissolved Neodymium Isotopes Trace Origin and Spatiotemporal Evolution of Modern Arctic Sea Ice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgi Laukert ◽  
Dorothea Bauch ◽  
Ilka Peeken ◽  
Thomas Krumpen ◽  
Kirstin Werner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Spatiotemporal Evolution ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Ice Floes

<p>The lifetime and thickness of Arctic sea ice have markedly decreased in the recent past. This affects Arctic marine ecosystems and the biological pump, given that sea ice acts as platform and transport medium of marine and atmospheric nutrients. At the same time sea ice reduces light penetration to the Arctic Ocean and restricts ocean/atmosphere exchange. In order to understand the ongoing changes and their implications, reconstructions of source regions and drift trajectories of Arctic sea ice are imperative. Automated ice tracking approaches based on satellite-derived sea-ice motion products (e.g. ICETrack) currently perform well in dense ice fields, but provide limited information at the ice edge or in poorly ice-covered areas. Radiogenic neodymium (Nd) isotopes (ε<sub>Nd</sub>) have the potential to serve as a chemical tracer of sea-ice provenance and thus may provide information beyond what can be expected from satellite-based assessments. This potential results from pronounced ε<sub>Nd</sub> differences between the distinct marine and riverine sources, which feed the surface waters of the different sea-ice formation regions. We present the first dissolved (< 0.45 µm) Nd isotope and concentration data obtained from optically clean Arctic first- and multi-year sea ice (ice cores) collected from different ice floes across the Fram Strait during the RV POLARSTERN cruise PS85 in 2014. Our data confirm the preservation of the seawater ε<sub>Nd</sub>signatures in sea ice despite low Nd concentrations (on average ~ 6 pmol/kg) resulting from efficient brine rejection. The large range in ε<sub>Nd</sub> signatures (~ -10 to -30) mirrors that of surface waters in various parts of the Arctic Ocean, indicating that differences between ice floes but also between various sections in an individual ice core reflect the origin and evolution of the sea ice over time. Most ice cores have ε<sub>Nd</sub> signatures of around -10, suggesting that the sea ice was formed in well-mixed waters in the central Arctic Ocean and transported directly to the Fram Strait via the Transpolar Drift. Some ice cores, however, also revealed highly unradiogenic signatures (ε<sub>Nd</sub> < ~ -15) in their youngest (bottom) sections, which we attribute to incorporation of meltwater from Greenland into newly grown sea ice layers. Our new approach facilitates the reconstruction of the origin and spatiotemporal evolution of isolated sea-ice floes in the future Arctic.</p>

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