scholarly journals Investigating the local-scale influence of sea ice on Greenland surface melt

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2363-2381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julienne C. Stroeve ◽  
John R. Mioduszewski ◽  
Asa Rennermalm ◽  
Linette N. Boisvert ◽  
Marco Tedesco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Sheet Surface ◽  
Surface Melt

Abstract. Rapid decline in Arctic sea ice cover in the 21st century may have wide-reaching effects on the Arctic climate system, including the Greenland ice sheet mass balance. Here, we investigate whether local changes in sea ice around the Greenland ice sheet have had an impact on Greenland surface melt. Specifically, we investigate the relationship between sea ice concentration, the timing of melt onset and open-water fraction surrounding Greenland with ice sheet surface melt using a combination of remote sensing observations, and outputs from a reanalysis model and a regional climate model for the period of 1979–2015. Statistical analysis points to covariability between Greenland ice sheet surface melt and sea ice within Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. While some of this covariance can be explained by simultaneous influence of atmospheric circulation anomalies on both the sea ice cover and Greenland melt, within Baffin Bay we find a modest correlation between detrended melt onset over sea ice and the adjacent ice sheet melt onset. This correlation appears to be related to increased transfer of sensible and latent heat fluxes from the ocean to the atmosphere in early sea ice melt years, increasing temperatures and humidity over the ice sheet that in turn initiate ice sheet melt.

scholarly journals Investigating the Local Scale Influence of Sea Ice on Greenland Surface Melt

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julienne C. Stroeve ◽  
John R. Mioduszewski ◽  
Asa Rennermalm ◽  
Linette N. Boisvert ◽  
Marco Tedesco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Sheet Surface ◽  
Surface Melt

Abstract. Rapid decline in Arctic sea ice cover in the 21st century may have wide-reaching effects on the Arctic climate system, including the Greenland ice sheet mass balance. Here, we investigate whether local changes in sea ice around the Greenland ice sheet have had an impact on Greenland surface melt. Specifically, we investigate the relationship between sea ice concentration, the timing of melt onset and open water fraction surrounding Greenland with ice sheet surface melt using a combination of remote sensing observations, and outputs from a reanalysis model and a regional climate model for the period 1979–2015. Statistical analysis points to covariability between Greenland ice sheet surface melt and sea ice within Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. While some of this covariance can be explained by simultaneous influence of atmospheric circulation anomalies on both the sea ice cover and Greenland melt, within Baffin Bay we find a modest correlation between detrended melt onset over sea ice and the adjacent ice sheet melt onset. This correlation appears to be related to increased transfer of sensible and latent heat fluxes from the ocean to the atmosphere in early sea ice melt years, increasing temperatures and humidity over the ice sheet that in turn initiate ice sheet melt.

scholarly journals Influence of Arctic sea-ice loss on the Greenland ice sheet climate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Sellevold ◽  
Jan T. M. Lenaerts ◽  
Miren Vizcaino
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Humid Atmosphere ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Surface Melt ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe Arctic is the region on Earth that is warming the fastest. At the same time, Arctic sea ice is reducing while the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an accelerated pace. Here, we study the seasonal impact of reduced Arctic sea ice on GrIS surface mass balance (SMB), using the Community Earth System Model version 2.1 (CESM2), which features an advanced, interactive calculation of SMB. Addressing the impact of sea-ice reductions on the GrIS SMB from observations is difficult due to the short observational records. Also, signals detected using transient climate simulations may be aliases of other forcings. Here, we analyze dedicated simulations from the Polar Amplification Model Intercomparison Project with reduced Arctic sea ice and compare them with preindustrial sea ice simulations while keeping all other forcings constant. In response to reduced sea ice, the GrIS SMB increases in winter due to increased precipitation, driven by the more humid atmosphere and increasing cyclones. In summer, surface melt increases due to a warmer, more humid atmosphere providing increased energy transfer to the surface through the sensible and latent heat fluxes, which triggers the melt-albedo feedback. Further, warming occurs throughout the entire troposphere over Baffin Bay. This deep warming results in regional enhancement of the 500 hPa geopotential heights over the Baffin Bay and Greenland, increasing blocking and heat advection over the GrIS’ surface. This anomalous circulation pattern has been linked to recent increases in the surface melt of the GrIS.

scholarly journals Holocene variability in sea ice and primary productivity in the northeastern Baffin Bay

arktos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 55-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeetendra Saini ◽  
Ruediger Stein ◽  
Kirsten Fahl ◽  
Jens Weiser ◽  
Dierk Hebbeln ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Water Discharge ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ice Edge

AbstractArctic sea ice is a critical component of the climate system, known to influence ocean circulation, earth’s albedo, and ocean–atmosphere heat and gas exchange. Current developments in the use of IP25 (a sea ice proxy with 25 carbon atoms only synthesized by Arctic sea ice diatoms) have proven it to be a suitable proxy for paleo-sea ice reconstructions over hundreds of thousands to even millions of years. In the NE Baffin Bay, off NW Greenland, Melville Bugt is a climate-sensitive region characterized by strong seasonal sea ice variability and strong melt-water discharge from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). Here, we present a centennial-scale resolution Holocene sea ice record, based on IP25 and open-water phytoplankton biomarkers (brassicasterol, dinosterol and HBI III) using core GeoB19927-3 (73° 35.26′ N, 58° 05.66′ W). Seasonal to ice-edge conditions near the core site are documented for most of the Holocene period with some significant variability. In the lower-most part, a cold interval characterized by extensive sea ice cover and very low local productivity is succeeded by an interval (~ 9.4–8.5 ka BP) with reduced sea ice cover, enhanced GIS spring melting, and strong influence of the West Greenland Current (WGC). From ~ 8.5 until ~ 7.8 ka BP, a cooling event is recorded by ice algae and phytoplankton biomarkers. They indicate an extended sea ice cover, possibly related to the opening of Nares Strait, which may have led to an increased influx of Polar Water into NE-Baffin Bay. The interval between ~ 7.8 and ~ 3.0 ka BP is characterized by generally reduced sea ice cover with millennial-scale variability of the (late winter/early spring) ice-edge limit, increased open-water conditions (polynya type), and a dominant WGC carrying warm waters at least as far as the Melville Bugt area. During the last ~ 3.0 ka BP, our biomarker records do not reflect the late Holocene ‘Neoglacial cooling’ observed elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, possibly due to the persistent influence of the WGC and interactions with the adjacent fjords. Peaks in HBI III at about ~ 2.1 and ~ 1.3 ka BP, interpreted as persistent ice-edge situations, might correlate with the Roman Warm Period (RWP) and Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), respectively, in-phase with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) mode. When integrated with marine and terrestrial records from other circum-Baffin Bay areas (Disko Bay, the Canadian Arctic, the Labrador Sea), the Melville Bugt biomarker records point to close ties with high Arctic and Northern Hemispheric climate conditions, driven by solar and oceanic circulation forcings.

scholarly journals Does sea ice influence Greenland ice sheet surface-melt?

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 024011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asa K Rennermalm ◽  
Laurence C Smith ◽  
Julienne C Stroeve ◽  
Vena W Chu
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Sheet Surface ◽  
Surface Melt

scholarly journals Regional variability in sea ice melt in a changing Arctic

2015 ◽  
Vol 373 (2045) ◽  
pp. 20140165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald K. Perovich ◽  
Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Regional Variability ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Surface Melt

In recent years, the Arctic sea ice cover has undergone a precipitous decline in summer extent. The sea ice mass balance integrates heat and provides insight on atmospheric and oceanic forcing. The amount of surface melt and bottom melt that occurs during the summer melt season was measured at 41 sites over the time period 1957 to 2014. There are large regional and temporal variations in both surface and bottom melting. Combined surface and bottom melt ranged from 16 to 294 cm, with a mean of 101 cm. The mean ice equivalent surface melt was 48 cm and the mean bottom melt was 53 cm. On average, surface melting decreases moving northward from the Beaufort Sea towards the North Pole; however interannual differences in atmospheric forcing can overwhelm the influence of latitude. Substantial increases in bottom melting are a major contributor to ice losses in the Beaufort Sea, due to decreases in ice concentration. In the central Arctic, surface and bottom melting demonstrate interannual variability, but show no strong temporal trends from 2000 to 2014. This suggests that under current conditions, summer melting in the central Arctic is not large enough to completely remove the sea ice cover.

scholarly journals Increasing Mobility of High Arctic Sea Ice Increases Marine Hazards off the East Coast of Newfoundland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Babb ◽  
David Barber ◽  
Jens Ehn ◽  
Wayne Chan ◽  
Lisa Mathes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Maritime Industry ◽  
Baffin Bay ◽  
Nares Strait ◽  
Fishing Vessels ◽  
Arctic Ice ◽  
Ice Pack

<p>As the Arctic ice cover has transitioned to a younger and thinner state it has become weaker and therefore increasingly mobile. One of the key indicators of this change is the increase in ice flux through Nares Strait, which connects the central Arctic to Baffin Bay and is an export pathway for some of the oldest and thickest sea ice remaining within the Arctic. Historically ice flux through the narrow Strait was seasonally limited by the formation of an ice arch, however as the ice cover has thinned the arch no longer forms every winter, and when it does form it tends to break up earlier. An increase in ice flux through Nares Strait not only affects the retention of old thick ice within the central Arctic, but also affects the icescape downstream of the Strait that extends from Baffin Bay, through the Labrador Sea and towards the southern ice edge around Newfoundland. While an ice cover does form annually around Newfoundland, it is typically a thin seasonal ice cover, which forms in January and is gone by May. However, during spring 2017 the ice conditions were considerably heavier, presenting hazardous conditions for the local maritime industry into June and requiring the Canadian Coast Guard research ice breaker Amundsen be pulled off of its scientific cruise and used to escort vessels and conduct search and rescue operations along Newfoundland’s northeast coast. The ice cover was considerably thicker and more extensive than previous years and sank two fishing vessels that became beset within the ice pack. Using a unique suite of in situ observations we confirmed that multiyear sea ice from the central Arctic was present within this anomalous ice cover. Using satellite imagery and regional ice charts we tracked the source of this multiyear ice back to Nares Strait and the central Arctic. While regional in focus, this work highlights how the decline of the Arctic ice pack has implications for downstream areas where risk may be increasing as the ice pack declines.</p>

scholarly journals Has Arctic Sea Ice Loss Contributed to Increased Surface Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet?

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 3373-3386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiping Liu ◽  
Zhiqiang Chen ◽  
Jennifer Francis ◽  
Mirong Song ◽  
Thomas Mote ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Thermohaline Circulation ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Atmospheric Model ◽  
Surface Melting ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ice Conditions

Abstract In recent decades, the Greenland ice sheet has experienced increased surface melt. However, the underlying cause of this increased surface melting and how it relates to cryospheric changes across the Arctic remain unclear. Here it is shown that an important contributing factor is the decreasing Arctic sea ice. Reduced summer sea ice favors stronger and more frequent occurrences of blocking-high pressure events over Greenland. Blocking highs enhance the transport of warm, moist air over Greenland, which increases downwelling infrared radiation, contributes to increased extreme heat events, and accounts for the majority of the observed warming trends. These findings are supported by analyses of observations and reanalysis data, as well as by independent atmospheric model simulations using a state-of-the-art atmospheric model that is forced by varying only the sea ice conditions. Reduced sea ice conditions in the model favor more extensive Greenland surface melting. The authors find a positive feedback between the variability in the extent of summer Arctic sea ice and melt area of the summer Greenland ice sheet, which affects the Greenland ice sheet mass balance. This linkage may improve the projections of changes in the global sea level and thermohaline circulation.

scholarly journals Polar cod in jeopardy under the retreating Arctic sea ice

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Brockstedt Olsen Huserbråten ◽  
Elena Eriksen ◽  
Harald Gjøsæter ◽  
Frode Vikebø
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Biophysical Model ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Cod ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Shelf Sea

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.

scholarly journals Low-frequency bursts of horizontally polarized waves in the Arctic sea-ice cover

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (202) ◽  
pp. 231-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Marsan ◽  
Jérôme Weiss ◽  
Jean-Philippe Métaxian ◽  
Jacques Grangeon ◽  
Pierre-François Roux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Strong Activity ◽  
Temporal Sampling ◽  
Polarized Waves ◽  
Arctic Sea

AbstractWe report the detection of bursts of low-frequency waves, typically f = 0.025 Hz, on horizontal channels of broadband seismometers deployed on the Arctic sea-ice cover during the DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies) experiment in spring 2007. These bursts have amplitudes well above the ambient ice swell and a lower frequency content. Their typical duration is of the order of minutes. They occur at irregular times, with periods of relative quietness alternating with periods of strong activity. A significant correlation between the rate of burst occurrences and the ice-cover deformation at the ∼400 km scale centered on the seismic network suggests that these bursts are caused by remote, episodic deformation involving shearing across regional-scale leads. This observation opens the possibility of complementing satellite measurements of ice-cover deformation, by providing a much more precise temporal sampling, hence a better characterization of the processes involved during these deformation events.

scholarly journals Late-Twentieth-Century Simulation of Arctic Sea Ice and Ocean Properties in the CCSM4

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1431-1452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Jahn ◽  
Kara Sterling ◽  
Marika M. Holland ◽  
Jennifer E. Kay ◽  
James A. Maslanik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Internal Variability ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Motion Field ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ensemble Mean

To establish how well the new Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) simulates the properties of the Arctic sea ice and ocean, results from six CCSM4 twentieth-century ensemble simulations are compared here with the available data. It is found that the CCSM4 simulations capture most of the important climatological features of the Arctic sea ice and ocean state well, among them the sea ice thickness distribution, fraction of multiyear sea ice, and sea ice edge. The strongest bias exists in the simulated spring-to-fall sea ice motion field, the location of the Beaufort Gyre, and the temperature of the deep Arctic Ocean (below 250 m), which are caused by deficiencies in the simulation of the Arctic sea level pressure field and the lack of deep-water formation on the Arctic shelves. The observed decrease in the sea ice extent and the multiyear ice cover is well captured by the CCSM4. It is important to note, however, that the temporal evolution of the simulated Arctic sea ice cover over the satellite era is strongly influenced by internal variability. For example, while one ensemble member shows an even larger decrease in the sea ice extent over 1981–2005 than that observed, two ensemble members show no statistically significant trend over the same period. It is therefore important to compare the observed sea ice extent trend not just with the ensemble mean or a multimodel ensemble mean, but also with individual ensemble members, because of the strong imprint of internal variability on these relatively short trends.

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