Cyclone Impacts on Sea Ice Concentration in the Atlantic Arctic Ocean: Annual Cycle and Recent Changes

Abstract

We quantify sea ice concentration (SIC) changes related to synoptic cyclones separately for each month of the year in the Greenland, Barents and Kara Seas for 1979–2018. We find that these SIC changes can be statistically significant throughout the year. However, their strength varies from region to region and month to month, and their sign strongly depends on the considered time scale (before/during vs. after cyclone passages). Our results show that the annual cycle of cyclone impacts on SIC is related to varying cyclone intensity and traversed sea ice conditions. We further show that significant changes in these cyclone impacts have manifested in the last 40 years, with the strongest changes occurring in October and November. For these months, SIC decreases before/during cyclones have more than doubled in magnitude in the Barents and Kara Seas, while SIC increases following cyclones have weakened (intensified) in the Barents Sea (Kara Sea).

Comparison of Intense Summer Arctic Cyclones Between the Marginal Ice Zone and Central Arctic

“…This indicates that cyclone activity in both MIZ and AR can influence the reduction of sea ice. Some previous studies have investigated the relationship between Arctic cyclones and sea ice, they found that the impacts of cyclone activities on sea ice is likely influenced by both dynamic and thermodynamic factors (Aue et al, 2022;Aue & Rinke, 2023;Graham et al, 2019;Lukovich et al, 2021;Schreiber & Serreze, 2020;Tian et al, 2022). On the one hand, strong surface winds fracture the ice cover (Graham et al, 2019), which is consistent with the evolution of surface wind speeds in this paper (Figure 4c).…”

On the effects of the timing of an intense cyclone on summertime sea-ice evolution in the Arctic

“…Lukovich and others (2021) proposed that cyclone-induced sea-ice extent loss depends on the timing and location of the cyclone by analyzing the effects of the two intense cyclones occurred in August 2012 and August 2016 on sea-ice evolution. Aue and Rinke (2023) proved the impacts of cyclones on sea-ice conditions in the Atlantic Arctic strongly vary both in space and time, with intimate relation to the initial sea-ice conditions and the cyclone intensity.…”