scholarly journals Seasonal co-variability of surface downwelling longwave radiation for the 1982–2009 period in the Arctic

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 139-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Boccolari ◽  
Flavio Parmiggiani

Abstract. Trends and variability of the Arctic sea ice extent depend on various physical processes, including those related to changes in radiative fluxes, which are associated with cloudiness and water vapour and, in turn, with the atmospheric moisture transport over the Arctic. Aim of this work was: (i) to extract seasonal spatial patterns of the co-variability between the sea ice concentration (SIC) and the surface downwelling longwave radiation (SDL) in the Arctic Ocean during the 1982–2009 period; and (ii) to estimate the correlation coefficients between these patterns and the indices associated to some climate oscillation modes (AO, NAO, PNA, PDO and AMO). Maximum Covariance Analysis (MCA) was the main technique used in this study. Among our results, we highlight two areas of maximum co-variability SIC/SDL centered over the Barents Sea in winter and over the Chukchi Sea in summer. In addition, some statistically significant correlations (at 95 %) between the spatial patterns of co-variability and climate oscillation indices were assessed, e.g. with PDO and AMO in November–January, with NAO and AMO in May–July, and with PNA in August–October.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Mengyuan Long ◽  
Lujun Zhang ◽  
Siyu Hu ◽  
Shimeng Qian

AbstractThis paper evaluates the ability of 35 models from the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) to simulate Arctic sea ice by comparing simulated results with observation from the aspects of spatial patterns and temporal variation. The simulation ability of each model is also quantified by Taylor score and e score from these two aspects. Results show that biases between observed and simulated Arctic sea ice concentration (SIC) are mainly located in the East Greenland, Barents, Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk. The largest difference between the observed and simulated SIC spatial patterns occurs in September. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the ability of most models to simulate summer SIC spatial patterns has decreased. We also find that models with Sea Ice Simulator (SIS) sea-ice component in CMIP6 show a consistent larger positive simulation biases of SIC in the East Greenland and Barents Sea. In addition, for most models, the higher the model resolution is, the better the match between the simulated and observed spatial patterns of winter Arctic SIC is. Furthermore, this paper makes a detailed assessment for temporal variation of Arctic sea ice extent (SIE) with regard to climatological average, seasonal SIE, multi-year linear trend and detrended standard deviation of SIE. The sensitivity of September Arctic SIE to a given change of Arctic surface air temperature (SAT) over 1979-2014 in each model has also been investigated. Most models simulate a smaller loss of September Arctic SIE per degree of warming than observed (1.37×106 km2 K-1).


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 6515-6549 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Klein ◽  
H. Goosse ◽  
A. Mairesse ◽  
A. de Vernal

Abstract. The consistency between a new quantitative reconstruction of Arctic sea-ice concentration based on dinocyst assemblages and the results of climate models has been investigated for the mid-Holocene. The comparison shows that the simulated sea-ice changes are weaker and spatially more homogeneous than the recorded ones. Furthermore, although the model-data agreement is relatively good in some regions such as the Labrador Sea, the skill of the models at local scale is low. The response of the models follows mainly the increase in summer insolation at large scale. This is modulated by changes in atmospheric circulation leading to differences between regions in the models that are albeit smaller than in the reconstruction. Performing simulations with data assimilation using the model LOVECLIM amplifies those regional differences, mainly through a reduction of the southward winds in the Barents Sea and an increase in the westerly winds in the Canadian Basin of the Arctic. This leads to an increase in the ice concentration in the Barents and Chukchi Seas and a better agreement with the reconstructions. This underlines the potential role of atmospheric circulation to explain the reconstructed changes during the Holocene.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 4917-4932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid H. Onarheim ◽  
Tor Eldevik ◽  
Lars H. Smedsrud ◽  
Julienne C. Stroeve

The Arctic Ocean is currently on a fast track toward seasonally ice-free conditions. Although most attention has been on the accelerating summer sea ice decline, large changes are also occurring in winter. This study assesses past, present, and possible future change in regional Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent throughout the year by examining sea ice concentration based on observations back to 1950, including the satellite record since 1979. At present, summer sea ice variability and change dominate in the perennial ice-covered Beaufort, Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, and Kara Seas, with the East Siberian Sea explaining the largest fraction of September ice loss (22%). Winter variability and change occur in the seasonally ice-covered seas farther south: the Barents Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Greenland Sea, and Baffin Bay, with the Barents Sea carrying the largest fraction of loss in March (27%). The distinct regions of summer and winter sea ice variability and loss have generally been consistent since 1950, but appear at present to be in transformation as a result of the rapid ice loss in all seasons. As regions become seasonally ice free, future ice loss will be dominated by winter. The Kara Sea appears as the first currently perennial ice-covered sea to become ice free in September. Remaining on currently observed trends, the Arctic shelf seas are estimated to become seasonally ice free in the 2020s, and the seasonally ice-covered seas farther south to become ice free year-round from the 2050s.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung hyun Park ◽  
Baek-min Kim

<p>Phytoplankton is closely related to the Arctic Amplification in a future caused by the biogeophysical feedback. In particular, the increase in nutrients, which is one of the limiting factors of phytoplankton, affected by the increased inflow of rivers due to the Arctic warming in the Arctic region. Since Arctic region is sensitive to the feedback, the biological feedback is still difficult to expect an accurate simulate in the modeling simulation. This study used the GFDL-TOPAZ model by prescribing a runoff nitrogen flux in the contemporary level to simulate the phytoplankton, then prescribing the nitrogen flux over the East Siberian-Chukchi Sea. The model results underestimate chlorophyll A concentration and nutrient compared to the ARAON ship observation. But, We showed that the experiment of prescribing a regional runoff nitrogen flux by the river is well simulatinges the chlorophyll A concentration and nutrients than the CTRL experiment. Also, a  model result showed that the sea ice concentration in the Chukchi-East Siberian Sea and Kara-Barents Sea decreased, and it suggests that the regional change of the nutrient could, directly and indirectly, affect that Arctic sea ice concentrations</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Horvath ◽  
Julienne Stroeve ◽  
Balaji Rajagopalan ◽  
Alexandra Jahn

AbstractThe timing of melt onset in the Arctic plays a key role in the evolution of sea ice throughout Spring, Summer and Autumn. A major catalyst of early melt onset is increased downwelling longwave radiation, associated with increased levels of moisture in the atmosphere. Determining the atmospheric moisture pathways that are tied to increased downwelling longwave radiation and melt onset is therefore of keen interest. We employed Self Organizing Maps (SOM) on the daily sea level pressure for the period 1979–2018 over the Arctic during the melt season (April–July) and identified distinct circulation patterns. Melt onset dates were mapped on to these SOM patterns. The dominant moisture transport to much of the Arctic is enabled by a broad low pressure region stretching over Siberia and a high pressure over northern North America and Greenland. This configuration, which is reminiscent of the North American-Eurasian Arctic dipole pattern, funnels moisture from lower latitudes and through the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Other leading patterns are variations of this which transport moisture from North America and the Atlantic to the Central Arctic and Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Our analysis further indicates that most of the early and late melt onset timings in the Arctic are strongly related to the strong and weak emergence of these preferred circulation patterns, respectively.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelien Dekker

<p>Atmospheric blocking events in the Northern Hemishpere have been related to regional Arctic sea ice decline. During blocking events, pulses of warm and moist air enhance the radiative forcing on the sea ice in winter due to the increased longwave radiation associated with clouds. Several studies have shown that such events are related to regional sea ice concentration decline. Daily sea ice output with the latest version of CICE from the coupled Regional Arctic System model is used to study sea ice tendencies during January-February 2014. In this period there was a follow-up of a Atlantic warm moist air insturion and a Pacific warm moist air intrusion associated with surface air temperature perturbations up to 20 degrees locally.</p><p>A decline in sea ice concentration during wintertime does not neccesarily mean that ice melt has occurred. The goal of this case study is to distinguish the sea ice response between a dynamic and a thermodynamic component. In this way, we learn how much of the sea ice is advected into another region during such an event and how much the sea ice is lost due to the enhanced forcing and temperature increase.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Brockstedt Olsen Huserbråten ◽  
Elena Eriksen ◽  
Harald Gjøsæter ◽  
Frode Vikebø

Abstract The Arctic amplification of global warming is causing the Arctic-Atlantic ice edge to retreat at unprecedented rates. Here we show how variability and change in sea ice cover in the Barents Sea, the largest shelf sea of the Arctic, affect the population dynamics of a keystone species of the ice-associated food web, the polar cod (Boreogadus saida). The data-driven biophysical model of polar cod early life stages assembled here predicts a strong mechanistic link between survival and variation in ice cover and temperature, suggesting imminent recruitment collapse should the observed ice-reduction and heating continue. Backtracking of drifting eggs and larvae from observations also demonstrates a northward retreat of one of two clearly defined spawning assemblages, possibly in response to warming. With annual to decadal ice-predictions under development the mechanistic physical-biological links presented here represent a powerful tool for making long-term predictions for the propagation of polar cod stocks.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369-1389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Goss ◽  
Steven B. Feldstein ◽  
Sukyoung Lee

Abstract The interference between transient eddies and climatological stationary eddies in the Northern Hemisphere is investigated. The amplitude and sign of the interference is represented by the stationary wave index (SWI), which is calculated by projecting the daily 300-hPa streamfunction anomaly field onto the 300-hPa climatological stationary wave. ERA-Interim data for the years 1979 to 2013 are used. The amplitude of the interference peaks during boreal winter. The evolution of outgoing longwave radiation, Arctic temperature, 300-hPa streamfunction, 10-hPa zonal wind, Arctic sea ice concentration, and the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index are examined for days of large SWI values during the winter. Constructive interference during winter tends to occur about one week after enhanced warm pool convection and is followed by an increase in Arctic surface air temperature along with a reduction of sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas. The warming of the Arctic does occur without prior warm pool convection, but it is enhanced and prolonged when constructive interference occurs in concert with enhanced warm pool convection. This is followed two weeks later by a weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex and a decline of the AO. All of these associations are reversed in the case of destructive interference. Potential climate change implications are briefly discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Kilic ◽  
Catherine Prigent ◽  
Filipe Aires ◽  
Georg Heygster ◽  
Victor Pellet ◽  
...  

Over the last 25 years, the Arctic sea ice has seen its extent decline dramatically. Passive microwave observations, with their ability to penetrate clouds and their independency to sunlight, have been used to provide sea ice concentration (SIC) measurements since the 1970s. The Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer (CIMR) is a high priority candidate mission within the European Copernicus Expansion program, with a special focus on the observation of the polar regions. It will observe at 6.9 and 10.65 GHz with 15 km spatial resolution, and at 18.7 and 36.5 GHz with 5 km spatial resolution. SIC algorithms are based on empirical methods, using the difference in radiometric signatures between the ocean and sea ice. Up to now, the existing algorithms have been limited in the number of channels they use. In this study, we proposed a new SIC algorithm called Ice Concentration REtrieval from the Analysis of Microwaves (IceCREAM). It can accommodate a large range of channels, and it is based on the optimal estimation. Linear relationships between the satellite measurements and the SIC are derived from the Round Robin Data Package of the sea ice Climate Change Initiative. The 6 and 10 GHz channels are very sensitive to the sea ice presence, whereas the 18 and 36 GHz channels have a better spatial resolution. A data fusion method is proposed to combine these two estimations. Therefore, IceCREAM will provide SIC estimates with the good accuracy of the 6+10GHz combination, and the high spatial resolution of the 18+36GHz combination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1361-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ono ◽  
H. Tatebe ◽  
Y. Komuro

Abstract The mechanisms for and predictability of a drastic reduction in the Arctic sea ice extent (SIE) are investigated using the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate (MIROC) version 5.2. Here, a control (CTRL) with forcing fixed at year 2000 levels and perfect-model ensemble prediction (PRED) experiments are conducted. In CTRL, three (model years 51, 56, and 57) drastic SIE reductions occur during a 200-yr-long integration. In year 56, the sea ice moves offshore in association with a positive phase of the summer Arctic dipole anomaly (ADA) index and melts due to heat input through the increased open water area, and the SIE drastically decreases. This provides the preconditioning for the lowest SIE in year 57 when the Arctic Ocean interior is in a warm state and the spring sea ice volume has a large negative anomaly due to drastic ice reduction in the previous year. Although the ADA is one of the key mechanisms behind sea ice reduction, it does not always cause a drastic reduction. Our analysis suggests that wind direction favoring offshore ice motion is a more important factor for drastic ice reduction events. In years experiencing drastic ice reduction events, the September SIE can be skillfully predicted in PRED started from July, but not from April. This is because the forecast errors for the July sea level pressure and those for the sea ice concentration and sea ice thickness along the ice edge are large in PRED started from April.


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