scholarly journals Synoptic climatological approach associated with three recent summer heatwaves in the Canadian Arctic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (S1) ◽  
pp. 233-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Fazel-Rastgar
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
Pressure Centre ◽  
Temperature Records ◽  
Arctic Temperature

Abstract The observed unusually high temperatures in the Arctic during recent decades can be related to the Arctic sea ice declines in summer 2007, 2012 and 2016. Arctic dipole formation has been associated with all three heatwaves of 2007, 2012 and 2016 in the Canadian Arctic. Here, the differences in weather patterns are investigated and compared with normal climatological mean (1981–2010) structures. This study examines the high-resolution datasets from the North American Regional Reanalysis model. During the study periods, the north of Alaska has been affected by the low-pressure tongue. The maximum difference between Greenland high-pressure centre and Alaska low-pressure tongue for the summers of 2012, 2016 and 2007 are 8 hPa, 7 hPa and 6 hPa, respectively, corresponding and matching to the maximum summer surface Canadian Arctic temperature records. During anomalous summer heatwaves, low-level wind, temperatures, total clouds (%) and downward radiation flux at the surface are dramatically changed. This study shows the surface albedo has been reduced over most parts of the Canadian Arctic Ocean during the mentioned heatwaves (∼5–40%), with a higher change (specifically in the eastern Canadian Arctic region) during summer 2012 in comparison with summer 2016 and summer 2007, agreeing with the maximum surface temperature and sea ice decline records.

Prévoir les variations saisonnières de la glace de mer arctique et leurs impacts sur le climat

2020 ◽  
pp. 024
Author(s):  
Rym Msadek ◽  
Gilles Garric ◽  
Sara Fleury ◽  
Florent Garnier ◽  
Lauriane Batté ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Recent Effort ◽  
Sea Ice Thickness ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Upper Level

L'Arctique est la région du globe qui s'est réchauffée le plus vite au cours des trente dernières années, avec une augmentation de la température de surface environ deux fois plus rapide que pour la moyenne globale. Le déclin de la banquise arctique observé depuis le début de l'ère satellitaire et attribué principalement à l'augmentation de la concentration des gaz à effet de serre aurait joué un rôle important dans cette amplification des températures au pôle. Cette fonte importante des glaces arctiques, qui devrait s'accélérer dans les décennies à venir, pourrait modifier les vents en haute altitude et potentiellement avoir un impact sur le climat des moyennes latitudes. L'étendue de la banquise arctique varie considérablement d'une saison à l'autre, d'une année à l'autre, d'une décennie à l'autre. Améliorer notre capacité à prévoir ces variations nécessite de comprendre, observer et modéliser les interactions entre la banquise et les autres composantes du système Terre, telles que l'océan, l'atmosphère ou la biosphère, à différentes échelles de temps. La réalisation de prévisions saisonnières de la banquise arctique est très récente comparée aux prévisions du temps ou aux prévisions saisonnières de paramètres météorologiques (température, précipitation). Les résultats ayant émergé au cours des dix dernières années mettent en évidence l'importance des observations de l'épaisseur de la glace de mer pour prévoir l'évolution de la banquise estivale plusieurs mois à l'avance. Surface temperatures over the Arctic region have been increasing twice as fast as global mean temperatures, a phenomenon known as arctic amplification. One main contributor to this polar warming is the large decline of Arctic sea ice observed since the beginning of satellite observations, which has been attributed to the increase of greenhouse gases. The acceleration of Arctic sea ice loss that is projected for the coming decades could modify the upper level atmospheric circulation yielding climate impacts up to the mid-latitudes. There is considerable variability in the spatial extent of ice cover on seasonal, interannual and decadal time scales. Better understanding, observing and modelling the interactions between sea ice and the other components of the climate system is key for improved predictions of Arctic sea ice in the future. Running operational-like seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice is a quite recent effort compared to weather predictions or seasonal predictions of atmospheric fields like temperature or precipitation. Recent results stress the importance of sea ice thickness observations to improve seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice conditions during summer.

Arctocyclopina pagonasta, a new genus and species of the family Cyclopinidae (Cyclopoida, Copepoda) from the annual sea ice in the Canadian Arctic

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 2389-2394 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Mohammed ◽  
Vidar Neuhof
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
New Genus And Species ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
The Family

A new genus and species of Cyclopoida is described; Arctocyclopina pagonasta is found inhabiting the arctic sea ice. Comparison is made with Cyclopina gracilis Claus, with which it may be confused.

scholarly journals Record high Pacific Arctic seawater temperatures and delayed sea ice advance in response to episodic atmospheric blocking

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsubasa Kodaira ◽  
Takuji Waseda ◽  
Takehiko Nose ◽  
Jun Inoue
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Atmospheric Blocking ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Highly Correlated

AbstractArctic sea ice is rapidly decreasing during the recent period of global warming. One of the significant factors of the Arctic sea ice loss is oceanic heat transport from lower latitudes. For months of sea ice formation, the variations in the sea surface temperature over the Pacific Arctic region were highly correlated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). However, the seasonal sea surface temperatures recorded their highest values in autumn 2018 when the PDO index was neutral. It is shown that the anomalous warm seawater was a rapid ocean response to the southerly winds associated with episodic atmospheric blocking over the Bering Sea in September 2018. This warm seawater was directly observed by the R/V Mirai Arctic Expedition in November 2018 to significantly delay the southward sea ice advance. If the atmospheric blocking forms during the PDO positive phase in the future, the annual maximum Arctic sea ice extent could be dramatically reduced.

Gridded Arctic sea ice concentration reconstruction for the first half of the 20th century based on different proxy data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Semenov ◽  
Tatiana Matveeva
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Ice Concentration ◽  
The North ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ice Concentration

<p>Global warming in the recent decades has been accompanied by a rapid recline of the Arctic sea ice area most pronounced in summer (10% per decade). To understand the relative contribution of external forcing and natural variability to the modern and future sea ice area changes, it is necessary to evaluate a range of long-term variations of the Arctic sea ice area in the period before a significant increase in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Available observational data on the spatiotemporal dynamics of Arctic sea ice until 1950s are characterized by significant gaps and uncertainties. In the recent years, there have appeared several reconstructions of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century Arctic sea ice area that filled the gaps by analogue methods or utilized combined empirical data and climate model’s output. All of them resulted in a stronger that earlier believed negative sea ice area anomaly in the 1940s concurrent with the early 20<sup>th</sup> century warming (ETCW) peak. In this study, we reconstruct the monthly average gridded sea ice concentration (SIC) in the first half of the 20th century using the relationship between the spatiotemporal features of SIC variability, surface air temperature over the Northern Hemisphere extratropical continents, sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and sea level pressure. In agreement with a few previous results, our reconstructed data also show a significant negative anomaly of the Arctic sea ice area in the middle of the 20th century, however with some 15% to 30% stronger amplitude, about 1.5 million km<sup>2</sup> in September and 0.7 million km<sup>2</sup> in March. The reconstruction demonstrates a good agreement with regional Arctic sea ice area data when available and suggests that ETWC in the Arctic has been accompanied by a concurrent sea ice area decline of a magnitude that have been exceeded only in the beginning of the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</p>

scholarly journals The potential of sea ice leads as a predictor for summer Arctic sea ice extent

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3747-3757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Zhang ◽  
Xiao Cheng ◽  
Jiping Liu ◽  
Fengming Hui
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ◽  
Ice Leads ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Extent

Abstract. The Arctic sea ice extent throughout the melt season is closely associated with initial sea ice state in winter and spring. Sea ice leads are important sites of energy fluxes in the Arctic Ocean, which may play an important role in the evolution of Arctic sea ice. In this study, we examine the potential of sea ice leads as a predictor for summer Arctic sea ice extent forecast using a recently developed daily sea ice lead product retrieved from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Our results show that July pan-Arctic sea ice extent can be predicted from the area of sea ice leads integrated from midwinter to late spring, with a prediction error of 0.28 million km2 that is smaller than the standard deviation of the observed interannual variability. However, the predictive skills for August and September pan-Arctic sea ice extent are very low. When the area of sea ice leads integrated in the Atlantic and central and west Siberian sector of the Arctic is used, it has a significantly strong relationship (high predictability) with both July and August sea ice extent in the Atlantic and central and west Siberian sector of the Arctic. Thus, the realistic representation of sea ice leads (e.g., the areal coverage) in numerical prediction systems might improve the skill of forecast in the Arctic region.

scholarly journals The role of moisture transport for precipitation in the inter-annual and inter-daily fluctuations of the Arctic sea ice extension

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Gimeno-Sotelo ◽  
Raquel Nieto ◽  
Marta Vázquez ◽  
Luis Gimeno
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ice Melting ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Moisture Sources ◽  
Arctic Sea

Abstract. By considering the moisture transport for precipitation (MTP) for a target region to be the moisture that arrives in this region from its major moisture sources and which then results in precipitation in that region, we explore (i) whether the MTP from the main moisture sources for the Arctic region is linked with inter-annual fluctuations in the extent of Arctic sea ice superimposed on its decline and (ii) the role of extreme MTP events in the inter-daily change in the Arctic sea ice extent (SIE) when extreme MTP simultaneously arrives from the four main moisture regions that supply it. The results suggest (1) that ice melting at the scale of inter-annual fluctuations against the trend is favoured by an increase in moisture transport in summer, autumn, and winter and a decrease in spring and, (2) on a daily basis, extreme humidity transport increases the formation of ice in winter and decreases it in spring, summer, and autumn; in these three seasons extreme humidity transport therefore contributes to Arctic sea ice melting. These patterns differ sharply from that linked to the decline on a long-range scale, especially in summer when the opposite trend applies, as ice melt is favoured by a decrease in moisture transport for this season at this scale.

scholarly journals Determination of a melt-onset date for Arctic sea-ice regions using passive-microwave data

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 382-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Passive Microwave ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Horizontal Channel ◽  
Onset Date ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Brightness Temperatures

Although the formation and melt of sea ice are primarily functions of the annual radiation cycle, atmospheric sensible-heat forcing does serve to delay or advance the timing of such events. Additionally, if atmospheric conditions in the Arctic were to vary due to climate change it may have significant influence on ice conditions. Therefore, this paper investigates a methodology to determine melt-onset dale distribution, both spatially and temporally, in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding sea-ice covered regions.Melt determination is made by a threshold technique using the spectral signatures of the horizontal brightness temperatures (19 GHz horizontal channel minus the 37 GHz horizontal channel) obtained from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) passive-microwave sensor. Passive-microwave observations are used to identify melt because of the large increase in emissivity that occurs when liquid water is present. Emissivity variations are observed in the brightness temperatures due to the different scattering, absorption and penetration depths of the snowpack from the available satellite channels during melt. Monitoring the variations in the brightness temperatures allows the determination of melt-onset dates.Analysis of daily brightness temperature data allows spatial variations in the date of the snow inch onset for sea ice to be detected. Since the data are gridded on a daily basis, a climatology of daily melt-onset dates can be produced for the Arctic region. From this climatology, progression of melt can be obtained and compared inter-annually.

scholarly journals The sensitivity of the Arctic sea ice to orbitally induced insolation changes: a study of the mid-Holocene Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project 2 and 3 simulations

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 969-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Berger ◽  
J. Brandefelt ◽  
J. Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
The North ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Intercomparison Project ◽  
Insolation Change

Abstract. In the present work the Arctic sea ice in the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial climates are analysed and compared on the basis of climate-model results from the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project phase 2 (PMIP2) and phase 3 (PMIP3). The PMIP3 models generally simulate smaller and thinner sea-ice extents than the PMIP2 models both for the pre-industrial and the mid-Holocene climate. Further, the PMIP2 and PMIP3 models all simulate a smaller and thinner Arctic summer sea-ice cover in the mid-Holocene than in the pre-industrial control climate. The PMIP3 models also simulate thinner winter sea ice than the PMIP2 models. The winter sea-ice extent response, i.e. the difference between the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial climate, varies among both PMIP2 and PMIP3 models. Approximately one half of the models simulate a decrease in winter sea-ice extent and one half simulates an increase. The model-mean summer sea-ice extent is 11 % (21 %) smaller in the mid-Holocene than in the pre-industrial climate simulations in the PMIP2 (PMIP3). In accordance with the simple model of Thorndike (1992), the sea-ice thickness response to the insolation change from the pre-industrial to the mid-Holocene is stronger in models with thicker ice in the pre-industrial climate simulation. Further, the analyses show that climate models for which the Arctic sea-ice responses to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are similar may simulate rather different sea-ice responses to the change in solar forcing between the mid-Holocene and the pre-industrial. For two specific models, which are analysed in detail, this difference is found to be associated with differences in the simulated cloud fractions in the summer Arctic; in the model with a larger cloud fraction the effect of insolation change is muted. A sub-set of the mid-Holocene simulations in the PMIP ensemble exhibit open water off the north-eastern coast of Greenland in summer, which can provide a fetch for surface waves. This is in broad agreement with recent analyses of sea-ice proxies, indicating that beach-ridges formed on the north-eastern coast of Greenland during the early- to mid-Holocene.

Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Area Extent Cyclicity and Non-Stationarity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginald Muskett ◽  
Syun-Ichi Akasofu
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Wave Pattern ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Weather System ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Temperature Variations ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Temperature

<p>Arctic sea ice is a key component of the Arctic hydrologic cycle. This cycle is connected to land and ocean temperature variations and Arctic snow cover variations, spatially and temporally. Arctic temperature variations from historical observations shows an early 20th century increase (i.e. warming), followed by a period of Arctic temperature decrease (i.e. cooling) since the 1940s, which was followed by another period of Arctic temperature increase since the 1970s that continues into the two decades of the 21st century. Evidence has been accumulating that Arctic sea ice extent can experience multi-decadal to centennial time scale variations as it is a component of the Arctic Geohydrological System. </p><p><br>We investigate the multi-satellite and sensor daily values of area extent of Arctic sea ice since SMMR on Nimbus 7 (1978) to AMSR2 on GCOM-W1 (2019). From the daily time series we use the first year-cycle as a wave-pattern to compare to all subsequent years-cycles through April 2020 (in progress), and constitute a derivative time series. In this time series we find the emergence of a multi-decadal cycle, showing a relative minimum during the period of 2007 to 2014, and subsequently rising. This may be related to an 80-year cycle (hypothesis). The Earth’s weather system is principally driven the solar radiation and its variations. If the multi-decadal cycle in Arctic sea ice area extent that we interpret continues, it may be linked physically to the Wolf-Gleissberg cycle, a factor in the variations of terrestrial cosmogenic isotopes, ocean sediment layering and glacial varves, ENSO and Aurora.</p><p>Our hypothesis and results give more evidence that the multi-decadal variation of Arctic sea ice area extent is controlled by natural physical processes of the Sun-Earth system. </p>

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