Brief Communication: Trends in sea ice extent north of Svalbard and its impact on cold air outbreaks as observed in spring 2013

Tetzlaff, Amelie; Lüpkes, Christof; Birnbaum, Gerit; Hartmann, Jörg; Nygård, Tiina; Vihma, Timo

doi:10.5194/tc-8-1757-2014

Cited by 34 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…At the beginning of March 2013, a large ice‐free region was located north of Svalbard. The large extent of this so‐called Whaler's Bay polynya was unusual for this season (Tetzlaff et al , ). Due to this large polynya extent, the ice edge was oriented in a northeast to southwest direction and was located as far north as 81.5°N at 20°E.…”

Section: The Aircraft Campaign Stablementioning

confidence: 99%

Aircraft‐based observations of atmospheric boundary‐layer modification over Arctic leads

Tetzlaff

Lüpkes

Hartmann

2015

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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Leads are elongated channels in sea ice which play an important role for the heat and moisture exchange between the polar ocean and atmosphere. The aircraft campaign STABLE aimed to improve our current understanding of the formation of convective plumes over leads and their impact on the polar atmospheric boundary layer. It was carried out over the pack ice in the northern Fram Strait in March 2013. We present case studies of the boundary layer modification and turbulent fluxes over four wide leads, which differed strongly with respect to lead characteristics and environmental conditions. The observed near-surface sensible heat fluxes ranged from 15 to 180 W m −2 . The leads also induced an increase of the near-surface temperature of up to 3.2 • C and a humidity increase of up to 0.2 g kg −1 . In one of the cases, large entrainment fluxes exceeding 30% of the surface fluxes were observed. Vertical profiles of turbulent sensible heat and momentum fluxes were nonlinear downstream of the leads with a distinct flux maximum in the core of the convective plumes. In two cases, the plumes also strongly affected the wind field within the atmospheric boundary layer. Low-level jets that existed in those cases in the region upstream of the leads disappeared in the plume region. Finally, it is shown that large errors can occur when flux measurements are derived from lead orthogonal flight legs only. Therefore, complex flight patterns, as presented in this study, are necessary to accurately determine the energy fluxes in the environment of leads.

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Section: The Aircraft Campaign Stablementioning

confidence: 99%

Aircraft‐based observations of atmospheric boundary‐layer modification over Arctic leads

Tetzlaff

Lüpkes

Hartmann

2015

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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“…The area north and northeast of Svalbard has experienced a loss of sea ice in both spring and autumn during the satellite era (Onarheim et al, 2014(Onarheim et al, , 2018, but it is also a regional maximum of interannual variability (Grunseich & Wang, 2016, present study). In the 21st century, the spring ice-free area north of Svalbard has expanded eastward (Ivanov et al, 2015;Tetzlaff et al, 2014), along the pathway of relatively warm Atlantic Abstract Sea ice concentration along the continental margin of the Arctic Ocean is influenced by a multitude of factors, including local freezing and melting due to atmospheric forcing, lateral advection of sea ice by winds and ocean currents, and melting from below by warm Atlantic Water (AW). Here, we characterize the evolution of sea ice concentration in an area on the continental shelf break north of Svalbard in the period between 2012 and 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of Interannual Sea Ice Concentration Variability in the Atlantic Water Inflow Region North of Svalbard

2021

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Sea ice concentration along the continental margin of the Arctic Ocean is influenced by a multitude of factors, including local freezing and melting due to atmospheric forcing, lateral advection of sea ice by winds and ocean currents, and melting from below by warm Atlantic Water (AW). Here, we characterize the evolution of sea ice concentration in an area on the continental shelf break north of Svalbard in the period between 2012 and 2019. During this period, a semi‐regular seasonal pattern in sea ice concentration was interrupted by three anomalous seasons; a high ice anomaly during autumn 2014 and low ice anomalies during spring 2016 and 2018. Neither type of anomaly can be explained by abnormal upper ocean heat content as measured by an ocean mooring located near the shelf break. Instead, we find that the predominant driver of interannual sea ice concentration variability during this period was variations in large‐scale ice drift. While heat flux from the ocean cannot explain the interannual variability, it plays a key role in maintaining periods of open water in the AW inflow region despite freezing air temperatures during most of the year. These results are consistent with the sea ice concentration flux divergence from satellite records, which suggests that the southern continental slope of the Eurasian Basin is an important melting area for sea ice advected in from the north.

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“…The Fram Strait Branch of the North Atlantic Current is the major carrier of oceanic heat to the Arctic Basin and likely responsible for the ice‐free conditions in the eastern Fram Strait (roughly between 0° and 10°E longitude and as far north as ~80°N latitude) (Schauer et al, 2004; Spielhagen et al, 2011) (Figure 1) and the recent decline in sea ice cover north of Svalbard (Onarheim et al, 2014; Tetzlaff et al, 2014). Furthermore, the heat transported by the Atlantic water (AW) with this current appears to be increasing and, thereafter, accelerating sea ice melting in the Eastern Nansen Basin (Polyakov et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Warm Atlantic Water Explains Observed Sea Ice Melt Rates North of Svalbard

et al. 2020

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Warm Atlantic water (AW) that flows northward along the Svalbard west coast is thought to transport enough heat to melt regional Arctic sea ice effectively. Despite this common assumption, quantitative requirements necessary for AW to directly melt sea ice fast enough under realistic winter conditions are still poorly constrained. Here we use meteorological data, satellite observations of sea ice concentration and drift, and model output to demonstrate that most of the sea ice entering the area over the Yermak Plateau melts within a few weeks. Simulations using the Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE) in a 1‐D vertically resolved configuration under a relatively wide range of in situ observed atmospheric and ocean forcing show a good fit to observations. Simulations require high‐frequency atmospheric forcing data to accurately reproduce vertical heat fluxes between the ice or snow and the atmosphere. Moreover, we switched off hydrostatic equilibrium to properly reproduce ice and snow thickness when observations showed that ice had a negative freeboard, without surface flooding and snow‐ice formation. This modeling shows that realistic melt rates require a combination of warm near‐surface AW and storm‐induced ocean mixing. However, if AW is warmer than usual (>5°C), then lower mixing rates are sufficient. Our results suggest that increased winter storm frequency and increased heat content of the AW may work together in reducing future sea ice cover in the Eurasian basin.

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Brief Communication: Trends in sea ice extent north of Svalbard and its impact on cold air outbreaks as observed in spring 2013

Cited by 34 publications

References 22 publications

Aircraft‐based observations of atmospheric boundary‐layer modification over Arctic leads

Aircraft‐based observations of atmospheric boundary‐layer modification over Arctic leads

Drivers of Interannual Sea Ice Concentration Variability in the Atlantic Water Inflow Region North of Svalbard

Warm Atlantic Water Explains Observed Sea Ice Melt Rates North of Svalbard

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