New Insights Into Cyclone Impacts on Sea Ice in the Atlantic Sector of the Arctic Ocean in Winter

Abstract

Cyclones are important drivers of heat and moisture transport from lower latitudes into the polar regions; they account for nearly three-quarters of the average annual moisture transport into the Arctic (Fearon et al., 2021). The direct thermodynamic impacts of intrusions of warm and moist air in winter are increased downward fluxes of longwave radiation and sensible heat at the snow/ice surface, accompanied by a reduction in sea ice concentration (SIC) (Woods & Caballero, 2016). It has been shown that anomalous warming and moistening triggered by extreme cyclone events can result in near-melting conditions in winter in the Arctic, turn the normally negative surface energy budget (SEB) into a positive one, and thus promote ice melt or reduced ice growth (Boisvert et al., 2016;Moore, 2016;Rinke et al., 2017). But cyclone impacts on Arctic sea ice in winter are not limited to thermodynamics. Cyclone-related wind anomalies lead to a shift of the ice edge position and thus locally reduce or increase the sea ice extent dynamically (Boisvert et al., 2016;Schreiber & Serreze, 2020). Furthermore, ice deformation during storms can promote ice drift divergence and subsequent lead formation and new ice growth as well as ice drift convergence, closing of leads, and formation of pressure ridges (Itkin et al., 2017).Due to these various dynamic and thermodynamic impacts, cyclones are an important driver of Arctic sea ice variability, which plays a key role in the Arctic climate system. Apart from that, the ice edge position and the local SIC are important factors for the marine ecosystem and short-term predictions of both are also crucial for navigation in the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas. With the climate warming and associated reductions in sea ice thickness and concentration (IPCC, 2021), Arctic navigation is hereby expected to increase in the future (Cao et al., 2022). All this makes it important to understand the impact of cyclones on sea ice. Thereby, the focus of

Impact of Cyclonic Wind Anomalies Caused by Massive Winter Sea Ice Retreat in the Barents Sea on Atlantic Water Transport Toward the Arctic: A Model Study

“…(2013), and Aue et al. (2022) who studied the impact of single transient cyclones on the local distribution of sea ice in the Barents Sea, we further suggest a more detailed study of the impact of synoptic‐scale atmosphere variability on the Barents Sea Opening transports for future research.…”

“…The exchange of heat between the ocean and the atmosphere naturally varies and is directly linked to the extent of the winter sea ice cover. While high-frequency atmosphere variability (e.g., transient cyclones) impacts the Barents Sea sea ice extent on timescales of several days (Aue et al, 2022;Boisvert et al, 2016;Graham et al, 2019;Schreiber & Serreze, 2020), Lien et al (2017) showed that Atlantic Water variability contributes to sea ice anomalies from sub-seasonal to longer timescales. It is still debated whether interannual to decadal variations in the Barents Sea ice cover are mainly driven by variability of the Atlantic Water heat transport (Årthun et al, 2012Wang et al, 2019) or variability of the atmospheric circulation (Liu et al, 2022;Sorteberg & Kvingedal, 2006).…”

Surface impacts and associated mechanisms of a moisture intrusion into the Arctic observed in mid-April 2020 during MOSAiC

“…Overall, the anomalies of SEB components during the mid-April 2020 event are within the order of magnitude as reported for WAIs in other seasons (recently e.g., Murto et al, 2022;Bresson et al, 2022;You et al, 2022). Furthermore, our reported WAI-related SEB anomalies are consistent with surface energy flux anomalies associated with cyclones and related sea-ice changes (recently, Aue et al, 2022;Clancy et al, 2022;Finoccio et al, 2022).…”

Sea ice concentration satellite retrievals influenced by surface changes due to warm air intrusions: A case study from the MOSAiC expedition.

“…Although it has been observed by Tjernström et al (2015) that warm air advections can cause rapid ice melt, and that dynamic effects can decrease SIC up to 3% in the high sea ice concentration domain. (Aue et al, 2022;Schreiber and Serreze, 2020) here Only after the event the rise in PD can be observed at all frequencies but strongest at the higher frequencies. Figure 4 (d) illustrates that both the gradient ratio as well as the polarization ratio show higher values after the intrusions (after April 20).…”