Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Arctic sea ice over the last few decades has experienced a significant decline in coverage both in summer and winter. The currently warming Atlantic Water layer has a pronounced impact on sea ice in the Nordic Seas (including the Barents Sea). More open water combined with the prevailing atmospheric pattern of airflow from the southeast, and persistent North Atlantic storms such as the recent extremely strong Storm Frank in December 2015, lead to increased energy transport to the high Arctic. Each of these storms brings sizeable anomalies of heat to the high Arctic, resulting in significant warming and slowing down of sea ice growth or even melting. Our analysis indicates that the recently observed sea ice decline in the Nordic Seas during the cold season around Svalbard, Franz Joseph Land and Novaya Zemlya, and the associated heat release from open water into the atmosphere, contributed significantly to the increase in the downward longwave radiation throughout the entire Arctic. Added to other changes in the surface energy budget, this increase since the 1960s to the present is estimated to be at least 10 W m −2 , which can result in thinner (up to at least 15–20 cm) Arctic ice at the end of the winter. This change in the surface budget is an important contributing factor accelerating the thinning of Arctic sea ice.
Source: Environmental Research Letters
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,045
Awards: G2316874711, Collaborative Research: Eurasian and Makarov basins observational network targets changes in the Arctic Ocean, G3113477013, G419762008, Collaborative Research: Understanding the role of Arctic cyclones - A system approach, COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Ice Regime Shifts of Arctic Lakes Drive Interactions and Feedbacks with Permafrost and Climate
OpenAlex ID: W2739679357