High sensitivity of Bering Sea winter sea ice to winter insolation and carbon dioxide over the last 5,500 years

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam C. Jones Jones ◽  
Max Berkelhammer ◽  
Katherine Keller ◽  
Kei Yoshimura ◽  
Matthew J. Wooller
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Winter Insolation ◽  
The Bering Sea

<p>Anomalously low winter sea-ice extent and early retreat in CE 2018 and 2019 challenges previous notions of relatively stable winter sea ice in the Bering Sea over the instrumental record, but long-term sea-ice records from sediment proxies remain limited.  Here we use a record of peat-cellulose oxygen isotopes from St. Matthew Island, along with isotope-enabled general circulation model (IsoGSM) simulations to generate a 5,500-year record of Bering Sea winter sea-ice extent.  Results show that over the instrumental period (CE 1979-2018), oxygen isotope variability is largest over the late winter to spring (February, March, April, May [FMAM]) and highly correlated (-0.77, p<0.00001) with maximum winter sea-ice extent, months in which Bering sea ice reaches its winter maximum and then rapidly diminishes. We find that over the last 5,500 years, sea ice in the Bering Sea decreased in response to increasing winter insolation and atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>, and on shorter, centennial timescales, small (<10 ppmv)  perturbations in atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>, suggesting that the North Pacific is highly sensitive to small (<3 W m<sup>-2</sup>) changes in radiative forcing. However, we find that reconstructed sea-ice loss lags CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations by ~120 years, indicating that the extremely anomalous recent conditions are a legacy of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century and that even with a complete cessation of greenhouse gas emissions today. As a consequence, the Bering Sea could lose all winter sea ice by mid-century, which it may not recover for millennia.</p>

scholarly journals High sensitivity of Bering Sea winter sea ice to winter insolation and carbon dioxide over the last 5500 years

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (36) ◽  
pp. eaaz9588
Author(s):  
Miriam C. Jones ◽  
Max Berkelhammer ◽  
Katherine J. Keller ◽  
Kei Yoshimura ◽  
Matthew J. Wooller
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
The North ◽  
Winter Insolation ◽  
The Bering Sea

Anomalously low winter sea ice extent and early retreat in CE 2018 and 2019 challenge previous notions that winter sea ice in the Bering Sea has been stable over the instrumental record, although long-term records remain limited. Here, we use a record of peat cellulose oxygen isotopes from St. Matthew Island along with isotope-enabled general circulation model (IsoGSM) simulations to generate a 5500-year record of Bering Sea winter sea ice extent. Results show that over the last 5500 years, sea ice in the Bering Sea decreased in response to increasing winter insolation and atmospheric CO2, suggesting that the North Pacific is highly sensitive to small changes in radiative forcing. We find that CE 2018 sea ice conditions were the lowest of the last 5500 years, and results suggest that sea ice loss may lag changes in CO2 concentrations by several decades.

scholarly journals Response of the Northern Hemisphere sea ice to greenhouse forcing in a global climate model

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 513-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Nazarenko ◽  
James Hansen ◽  
Nikolai Tausnev ◽  
Reto Ruedy
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Sea Ice Extent

AbstractThe Q.-flux Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) global climate model, in which an atmospheric general circulation model is coupled to a mixed-layer ocean with specified horizontal heat transports, is used to simulate the transient and equilibrium climate response to a gradual increase of carbon dioxide (1% per year increase of CO2 to doubled CO2). The results indicate that the current GISS model has a high sensitivity with a global annual warming of about 4°C for doubled CO2 . Enhanced warming is found at higher latitudes near sea-ice margins due to retreat of sea ice in the greenhouse experiment. Surface warming is larger in winter than in summer, in part because of the reductions in ice cover and thickness that insulate the winter atmosphere from the ocean. The annual mean reduction of sea-ice cover due to doubled CO2 is about 30% for the Northern Hemisphere. The CO2 experiment has a 70% reduction of sea-ice area and 55% thinning of ice in August in the Northern Hemisphere. Noticeable reduction of sea-ice cover has been found in both historical records and satellite observations. The largest reduction of simulated sea-ice extent occurs in summer, consistent with observations.

scholarly journals Multi-model dynamic climate emulator for solar geoengineering

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas G. MacMartin ◽  
Ben Kravitz
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Nonlinear Effects ◽  
Accurate Estimate ◽  
Natural Variability ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Solar Geoengineering

Abstract. Climate emulators trained on existing simulations can be used to project the climate effects that would result from different possible future pathways of anthropogenic forcing, without relying on general circulation model (GCM) simulations for every possible pathway. We extend this idea to include different amounts of solar geoengineering in addition to different pathways of green-house gas concentrations by training emulators from a multi-model ensemble of simulations from the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). The emulator is trained on the abrupt 4 x CO2 and a compensating solar reduction simulation (G1), and evaluated by comparing predictions against a simulated 1 % per year CO2 increase and a similarly smaller solar reduction (G2). We find reasonable agreement in most models for predicting changes in temperature and precipitation (including regional effects), and annual-mean Northern hemisphere sea ice extent, with the difference between simulation and prediction typically smaller than natural variability. This verifies that the linearity assumption used in constructing the emulator is sufficient for these variables over the range of forcing considered. Annual-minimum Northern hemisphere sea ice extent is less-well predicted, indicating the limits of the linearity assumption. For future pathways involving relatively small forcing from solar geoengineering, the errors introduced from nonlinear effects may be smaller than the uncertainty due to natural variability, and the emulator prediction may be a more accurate estimate of the forced component of the models' response than an actual simulation would be.

scholarly journals A Study of the Fluctuations in Sea-Ice Extent of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas with Passive Microwave Satellite Observations (Abstract)

1987 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 236-236
Author(s):  
D.J. Cavalieri ◽  
C.L. Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Sea Of Okhotsk ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Phase Relationship ◽  
Kamchatka Peninsula ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation Patterns ◽  
Circulation Patterns ◽  
The Bering Sea

The seasonal sea-ice cover of the combined Bering and Okhotsk Seas at the time of maximum ice extent is almost 2 × 106 km2 and exceeds that of any other seasonal sea-ice zone in the Northern Hemisphere. Although both seas are relatively shallow bodies of water overlying continental shelf regions, there are important geographical differences. The Sea of Okhotsk is almost totally enclosed, being bounded to the north and west by Siberia and Sakhalin Island, and to the east by Kamchatka Peninsula. In contrast, the Bering Sea is the third-largest semi-enclosed sea in the world, with a surface area of 2.3 × 106 km2, and is bounded to the west by Kamchatka Peninsula, to the east by the Alaskan coast, and to the south by the Aleutian Islands arc.While the relationship between the regional oceanography and meteorology and the sea-ice covers of both the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk have been studied individually, relatively little attention has been given to the occasional out-of-phase relationship between the fluctuations in the sea-ice extent of these two large seas. In this study, we present 3 day averaged sea-ice extent data obtained from the Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR-5) for the four winters for which ESMR-5 data were available, 1973 through 1976, and document those periods for which there is an out-of-phase relationship in the fluctuations of the ice cover between the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. Further, mean sea-level pressure data are also analyzed and compared with the time series of sea-ice extent data to provide a basis for determining possible associations between the episodes of out-of-phase fluctuations and atmospheric circulation patterns.Previous work by Campbell and others (1981) using sea-ice concentrations also derived from ESMR-5 data noted this out-of-phase relationship between the two ice packs in 1973 and 1976. The authors commented that the out-of-phase relationship is “... surprising as these are adjacent seas, and one would assume that they had similar meteorologic environments”. We argue here that the out-of-phase relationship is consistent with large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, since the two seas span a range of longitude of about 60°, corresponding to a half wavelength of a zonal wave-number 3, and hence are quite susceptible to changes in the amplitude and phase of large-scale atmospheric waves.

Distribution and movements of white foxes in northern and western Alaska

1968 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 849-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Chesemore
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Aleutian Islands ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Seasonal Movements ◽  
Alaskan Arctic ◽  
Northern Alaska ◽  
The Bering Sea

White foxes occur on the tundra of northern and western Alaska and predominate on St. Lawrence, St. Matthew, Hall, and Diomede Islands in the Bering Sea. Few white foxes are found on the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands where blue foxes dominate the local fox population. On the Alaskan Arctic Slope, two seasonal movements, the first in the fall when foxes move seaward towards the coast and sea ice, and the second in late winter and early spring when they return inland to occupy summer den sites, occur. Although reported in other arctic areas, no definite records of fox migrations in northern Alaska exist. Distribution records for white foxes in Alaska are summarized.

Seasonal Forecasts of the Pan-Arctic Sea Ice Extent Using a GCM-Based Seasonal Prediction System

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (16) ◽  
pp. 6092-6104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Chevallier ◽  
David Salas y Mélia ◽  
Aurore Voldoire ◽  
Michel Déqué ◽  
Gilles Garric
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Seasonal Forecasts ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Arctic Sea

Abstract An ocean–sea ice model reconstruction spanning the period 1990–2009 is used to initialize ensemble seasonal forecasts with the Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques Coupled Global Climate Model version 5.1 (CNRM-CM5.1) coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model. The aim of this study is to assess the skill of fully initialized September and March pan-Arctic sea ice forecasts in terms of climatology and interannual anomalies. The predictions are initialized using “full field initialization” of each component of the system. In spite of a drift due to radiative biases in the coupled model during the melt season, the full initialization of the sea ice cover on 1 May leads to skillful forecasts of the September sea ice extent (SIE) anomalies. The skill of the prediction is also significantly high when considering anomalies of the SIE relative to the long-term linear trend. It confirms that the anomaly of spring sea ice cover in itself plays a role in preconditioning a September SIE anomaly. The skill of predictions for March SIE initialized on 1 November is also encouraging, and it can be partly attributed to persistent features of the fall sea ice cover. The present study gives insight into the current ability of state-of-the-art coupled climate systems to perform operational seasonal forecasts of the Arctic sea ice cover up to 5 months in advance.

scholarly journals Using an AGCM to Diagnose Historical Effective Radiative Forcing and Mechanisms of Recent Decadal Climate Change

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 1193-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Aerosol Forcing ◽  
Effective Radiative Forcing

Abstract An atmospheric general circulation model is forced with observed monthly sea surface temperature and sea ice boundary conditions, as well as forcing agents that vary in time, for the period 1979–2008. The simulations are then repeated with various forcing agents, individually and in combination, fixed at preindustrial levels. The simple experimental design allows the diagnosis of the model’s global and regional time-varying effective radiative forcing from 1979 to 2008 relative to preindustrial levels. Furthermore the design can be used to (i) calculate the atmospheric model’s feedback/sensitivity parameters to observed changes in sea surface temperature and (ii) separate those aspects of climate change that are directly driven by the forcing from those driven by large-scale changes in sea surface temperature. It is shown that the atmospheric response to increased radiative forcing over the last 3 decades has halved the global precipitation response to surface warming. Trends in sea surface temperature and sea ice are found to contribute only ~60% of the global land, Northern Hemisphere, and summer land warming trends. Global effective radiative forcing is ~1.5 W m−2 in this model, with anthropogenic and natural contributions of ~1.3 and ~0.2 W m−2, respectively. Forcing increases by ~0.5 W m−2 decade−1 over the period 1979–2008 or ~0.4 W m−2 decade−1 if years strongly influenced by volcanic forcings—which are nonlinear with time—are excluded from the trend analysis. Aerosol forcing shows little global decadal trend due to offsetting regional trends whereby negative aerosol forcing weakens in Europe and North America but continues to strengthen in Southeast Asia.

scholarly journals Arctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979–2010

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Cavalieri ◽  
C. L. Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Negative Trend ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Bering Sea

Abstract. Analyses of 32 yr (1979–2010) of Arctic sea ice extents and areas derived from satellite passive microwave radiometers are presented for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole and for nine Arctic regions. There is an overall negative yearly trend of −51.5 ± 4.1 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−4.1 ± 0.3% decade−1) in sea ice extent for the hemisphere. The yearly sea ice extent trends for the individual Arctic regions are all negative except for the Bering Sea: −3.9 ± 1.1 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−8.7 ± 2.5% decade−1) for the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan, +0.3 ± 0.8 × 103 km2 yr−1 (+1.2 ± 2.7% decade−1) for the Bering Sea, −4.4 ± 0.7 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−5.1 ± 0.9% decade−1) for Hudson Bay, −7.6 ± 1.6 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−8.5 ± 1.8% decade−1) for Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea, −0.5 ± 0.3 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−5.9 ± 3.5% decade−1) for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, −6.5 ± 1.1 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−8.6 ± 1.5% decade−1) for the Greenland Sea, −13.5 ± 2.3 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−9.2 ± 1.6% decade−1) for the Kara and Barents Seas, −14.6 ± 2.3 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−2.1 ± 0.3% decade−1) for the Arctic Ocean, and −0.9 ± 0.4 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−1.3 ± 0.5% decade−1) for the Canadian Archipelago. Similarly, the yearly trends for sea ice areas are all negative except for the Bering Sea. On a seasonal basis for both sea ice extents and areas, the largest negative trend is observed for summer with the next largest negative trend being for autumn. Both the sea ice extent and area trends vary widely by month depending on region and season. For the Northern Hemisphere as a whole, all 12 months show negative sea ice extent trends with a minimum magnitude in May and a maximum magnitude in September, whereas the corresponding sea ice area trends are smaller in magnitude and reach minimum and maximum values in March and September.

scholarly journals Arctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979–2010

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 957-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Cavalieri ◽  
C. L. Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Bering Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Negative Trend ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Bering Sea

Abstract. Analyses of 32 yr (1979–2010) of Arctic sea ice extents and areas derived from satellite passive microwave radiometers are presented for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole and for nine Arctic regions. There is an overall negative yearly trend of −51.5 ± 4.1 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−4.1 ± 0.3% decade−1) in sea ice extent for the hemisphere. The sea ice extent trends for the individual Arctic regions are all negative except for the Bering Sea: −3.9 ± 1.1 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−8.7 ± 2.5% decade−1) for the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan, +0.3 ± 0.8 × 103 km2 yr−1 (+1.2 ± 2.7% decade−1) for the Bering Sea, −4.4 ± 0.7 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−5.1 ± 0.9% decade−1) for Hudson Bay, −7.6 ± 1.6 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−8.5 ± 1.8% decade−1) for Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea, −0.5 ± 0.3 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−5.9 ± 3.5% decade−1) for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, −6.5 ± 1.1 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−8.6 ± 1.5% decade−1) for the Greenland Sea, −13.5 ± 2.3 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−9.2 ± 1.6% decade−1) for the Kara and Barents Seas, −14.6 ± 2.3 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−2.1 ± 0.3% decade−1) for the Arctic Ocean, and −0.9 ± 0.4 × 103 km2 yr−1 (−1.3 ± 0.5% decade−1) for the Canadian Archipelago. Similarly, the yearly trends for sea ice areas are all negative except for the Bering Sea. On a seasonal basis for both sea ice extents and areas, the largest negative trend is observed for summer with the next largest negative trend being for autumn.

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