scholarly journals Synoptic Conditions, Clouds, and Sea Ice Melt Onset in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seasonal Ice Zone

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (17) ◽  
pp. 6999-7016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Liu ◽  
Axel Schweiger

Cloud response to synoptic conditions over the Beaufort and Chukchi seasonal ice zone is examined. Four synoptic states with distinct thermodynamic and dynamic signatures are identified using ERA-Interim reanalysis data from 2000 to 2014. CloudSat and CALIPSO observations suggest control of clouds by synoptic states. Warm continental air advection is associated with the fewest low-level clouds, while cold air advection generates the most low-level clouds. Low-level clouds are related to lower-tropospheric stability and both are regulated by synoptic conditions. High-level clouds are associated with humidity and vertical motions in the upper atmosphere. Observed cloud vertical and spatial variability is reproduced well in ERA-Interim, but winter low-level cloud fraction is overestimated. This suggests that synoptic conditions constrain the spatial extent of clouds through the atmospheric structure, while the parameterizations for cloud microphysics and boundary layer physics are critical for the life cycle of clouds in numerical models. Sea ice melt onset is related to synoptic conditions. Melt onsets occur more frequently and earlier with warm air advection. Synoptic conditions with the highest temperatures and precipitable water are most favorable for melt onsets even though fewer low-level clouds are associated with these conditions.

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 345 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Derksen ◽  
J. Piwowar ◽  
E. LeDrew

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (46) ◽  
pp. eabc2695
Author(s):  
Diana Francis ◽  
Kyle S. Mattingly ◽  
Marouane Temimi ◽  
Rob Massom ◽  
Petra Heil

This study reports the occurrence of intense atmospheric rivers (ARs) during the two large Weddell Polynya events in November 1973 and September 2017 and investigates their role in the opening events via their enhancement of sea ice melt. Few days before the polynya openings, persistent ARs maintained a sustained positive total energy flux at the surface, resulting in sea ice thinning and a decline in sea ice concentration in the Maud Rise region. The ARs were associated with anomalously high amounts of total precipitable water and cloud liquid water content exceeding 3 SDs above the climatological mean. The above-normal integrated water vapor transport (IVT above the 99th climatological percentile), as well as opaque cloud bands, warmed the surface (+10°C in skin and air temperature) via substantial increases (+250 W m−2) in downward longwave radiation and advection of warm air masses, resulting in sea ice melt and inhibited nighttime refreezing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1125-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah R. Dewey ◽  
James H. Morison ◽  
Jinlun Zhang

AbstractTo understand the factors causing the interannual variations in the summer retreat of the Beaufort Sea ice edge, Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS) aboard U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Domain Awareness flights were made monthly from June to October in 2012, 2013, and 2014. The seasonal ice zone (SIZ) is where sea ice melts and reforms annually and encompasses the nominally narrower marginal ice zone (MIZ) where a mix of open-ocean and ice pack processes prevail. Thus, SIZRS provides a regional context for the smaller-scale MIZ processes. Observations with aircraft expendable conductivity–temperature–depth probes reveal a salinity pattern associated with large-scale gyre circulation and the seasonal formation of a shallow (~20 m) fresh layer moving with the ice edge position. Repeat occupations of the SIZRS lines from 72° to 76°N on 140° and 150°W allow a comparison of observed hydrography to atmospheric indices. Using this relationship, the basinwide salinity signals are separated from the fresh layer associated with the ice edge. While this layer extends northward under the ice edge as the melt season progresses, low salinities and warm temperatures appear south of the edge. Within this fresh layer, average salinity is correlated with distance from the ice edge. The salinity observations suggest that the upper-ocean freshening over the summer is dominated by local sea ice melt and vertical mixing. A Price–Weller–Pinkel model analysis reveals that observed changes in heat content and density structure are also consistent with a 1D mixing process.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuewei Li ◽  
Qinghua Yang ◽  
Lejiang Yu ◽  
Paul R. Holland ◽  
Chao Min ◽  
...  

Abstract. The sea ice thickness is recognized as an early indicator of climate changes. The mean Arctic sea ice thickness has been declining for the past four decades, and a sea ice thickness record minimum is confirmed occurring in autumn 2011. We used a daily sea ice thickness reanalysis data covering the melting season to investigate the dynamic and thermodynamic processes leading to the minimum thickness. Ice thickness budget analysis demonstrates that the ice thickness loss is associated with an extraordinarily large amount of multiyear ice volume export through the Fram Strait during the season of sea ice advance. Due to the loss of multiyear ice, the Arctic ice thickness becomes more sensitive to atmospheric anomalies. The positive net surface energy flux anomalies melt roughly 0.22 m of ice more than usual from June to August. An analysis of clouds and radiative fluxes from ERA5 reanalysis data reveals that the increased net surface energy absorption supports the enhanced sea ice melt. The enhanced cloudiness led to positive anomalies of net long-wave radiation. Furthermore, the enhanced sea ice melt reduces the surface albedo, triggering an ice–albedo amplifying feedback and contributing to the accelerating loss of multiyear ice. The results demonstrate that the dynamic transport of multiyear ice and the subsequent surface energy budget response is a critical mechanism actively contributing to the evolution of Arctic sea ice thickness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 2817-2833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingxin Li ◽  
Da-Lin Zhang ◽  
Jisong Sun ◽  
Qinghong Zhang

AbstractAn 8-yr (i.e., 2008–15) climatology of the spatiotemporal characteristics of hail events in China and their associated environmental conditions are examined using hail observations, L-band rawinsondes, and global reanalysis data. A total of 1003 hail events with maximum hail diameter (MHD) of greater than 5 mm are selected and then sorted into three hail-size bins. Hail events with the largest MHD bin correspond to the median vertical wind shear in the lowest 6-km layer (SHR6) of 21.6 m s−1, precipitable water (PW) of 34.8 mm, and convective available potential energy (CAPE) of 2192 J kg−1. Hail with different MHD bins share similar freezing-level heights (FLHs) of about 4000 m. The thickness of the hail growth zone is thinner for hail events with the largest MHD bin. Hail events with different MHD bins display seasonal variations associated with the summer monsoon; that is, the hail season starts in South China in spring and then shifts to North China in summer. Larger hail is mainly observed during the spring in South China before monsoon onset in the presence of an upper-level jet and a low-level southwesterly flow accounting for large SHR6 and PW. In contrast, smaller-MHD hailstorms occur mainly during the summer in North China when surface heating is high and the low-level southerly flow shifts northward with pronounced baroclinicity providing large CAPE and PW, moderate SHR6, and low FLH. Environmental CAPE and SHR6 for large hailstones in China are comparable in magnitude to those in the United States but larger than those in some European countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 4165-4178
Author(s):  
Stefanie Arndt ◽  
Christian Haas ◽  
Hanno Meyer ◽  
Ilka Peeken ◽  
Thomas Krumpen

Abstract. Recent low summer sea ice extent in the Weddell Sea raises questions about the contributions of dynamic and thermodynamic atmospheric and oceanic energy fluxes. The roles of snow, superimposed ice, and snow ice are particularly intriguing, as they are sensitive indicators of changes in atmospheric forcing and as they could trigger snow–albedo feedbacks that could accelerate ice melt. Here we present snow depth data and ice core observations of superimposed ice and snow ice collected in the northwestern Weddell Sea in late austral summer 2019, supplemented by airborne ice thickness measurements. Texture, salinity, and oxygen isotope analyses showed mean thicknesses of superimposed and snow ice of 0.11±0.11 and 0.22±0.22 m, respectively, or 3 % to 54 % of total ice thickness. Mean snow depths ranged between 0.46±0.29 m in the south to 0.05±0.06 m in the north, with mean and modal total ice thicknesses of 4.12±1.87 to 1.62±1.05 m and 3.9 to 0.9 m, respectively. These snow and ice properties are similar to results from previous studies, suggesting that the ice's summer surface energy balance and related seasonal transition of snow properties have changed little in past decades. This is supported by our additional analyses of the summer energy balance using atmospheric reanalysis data and by melt onset observations from satellite scatterometry showing few recent changes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Arndt ◽  
Christian Haas ◽  
Hanno Meyer ◽  
Ilka Peeken ◽  
Thomas Krumpen

Abstract. Recent low summer sea ice extent in the Weddell Sea raises questions about the contributions of dynamic and thermodynamic atmospheric and oceanic energy fluxes. The roles of snow, superimposed ice, and snow ice are particularly intriguing, as they are sensitive indicators for changes in atmospheric forcing, and as they could trigger snow-albedo feedbacks that could accelerate ice melt. Here we present snow depth data and ice core observations of superimposed ice and snow ice collected in the northwestern Weddell Sea in late austral summer of 2019, supplemented by airborne ice thickness measurements. Texture, salinity, and oxygen isotope analyses showed mean thicknesses of superimposed and snow ice of 0.11 ± 0.11 m and 0.22 ± 0.22 m, respectively, or 3 to 54 % of total ice thickness. Mean snow depths ranged between 0.46 ± 0.29 m in the south to 0.05 ± 0.06 m in the north, with mean and modal, total ice thicknesses between 4.12 ± 1.87 m to 1.62 ± 1.05 m, and 3.9 m to 0.9 m, respectively. These snow and ice properties are similar to results from previous studies, suggesting that the ice’s summer surface energy balance and related seasonal transition of snow properties have changed little in past decades. This is supported by our additional analyses of the summer energy balance using atmospheric reanalysis data, and melt onset observations from satellite scatterometry showing little recent changes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (23) ◽  
pp. 17601-17614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Stengel ◽  
Cornelia Schlundt ◽  
Stefan Stapelberg ◽  
Oliver Sus ◽  
Salomon Eliasson ◽  
...  

Abstract. An evaluation of the ERA-Interim clouds using satellite observations is presented. To facilitate such an evaluation in a proper way, a simplified satellite simulator has been developed and applied to 6-hourly ERA-Interim reanalysis data covering the period of 1982 to 2014. The simulator converts modelled cloud fields, for example those of the ERA-Interim reanalysis, to simulated cloud fields by accounting for specific characteristics of passive imaging satellite sensors such as the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), which form the basis of many long-term observational datasets of cloud properties. It is attempted to keep the simulated cloud fields close to the original modelled cloud fields to allow a quality assessment of the latter based on comparisons of the simulated clouds fields with the observations. Applying the simulator to ERA-Interim data, this study firstly focuses on the spatial distribution and frequency of clouds (total cloud fraction) and on their vertical position, using cloud-top pressure to express the cloud fraction of high-level, mid-level and low-level clouds. Furthermore, the cloud-top thermodynamic phase is investigated. All comparisons incorporate knowledge of systematic uncertainties in the satellite observations and are further stratified by accounting for the limited sensitivity of the observations to clouds with very low cloud optical thickness (COT). The comparisons show that ERA-Interim cloud fraction is generally too low nearly everywhere on the globe except in the polar regions. This underestimation is caused by a lack of mid-level and/or low-level clouds, for which the comparisons only show a minor sensitivity to the cloud optical thickness thresholds applied. The amount of ERA-Interim high-level clouds, being higher than in the observations, agrees with the observations within their estimated uncertainties. Removing the optically very thin clouds (COT <0.15) from the model fields improves the agreement with the observations for high-level cloud fraction locally (e.g. in the tropics), while for the mid-latitude regions, the best agreement for high-level cloud fraction is found when removing all clouds with COT <1.0. Comparisons of the cloud thermodynamic phase at the cloud top reveal a too high relative ice cloud frequency in ERA-Interim, being most pronounced in the higher latitudes. Indications are found that this is due to the suppression of liquid cloud occurrence for temperatures below −23 ∘C in ERA-Interim. The application of this simulator facilitates a more effective use of passive satellite observations of clouds in the evaluation of modelled cloudiness, for example in reanalyses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Ilham Safitra Damanik ◽  
Sundari Retno Andani ◽  
Dedi Sehendro

Milk is an important intake to meet nutritional needs. Both consumed by children, and adults. Indonesia has many producers of fresh milk, but it is not sufficient for national milk needs. Data mining is a science in the field of computers that is widely used in research. one of the data mining techniques is Clustering. Clustering is a method by grouping data. The Clustering method will be more optimal if you use a lot of data. Data to be used are provincial data in Indonesia from 2000 to 2017 obtained from the Central Statistics Agency. The results of this study are in Clusters based on 2 milk-producing groups, namely high-dairy producers and low-milk producing regions. From 27 data on fresh milk production in Indonesia, two high-level provinces can be obtained, namely: West Java and East Java. And 25 others were added in 7 provinces which did not follow the calculation of the K-Means Clustering Algorithm, including in the low level cluster.


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