Summer-to-Winter Sea-Ice Linkage between the Arctic Ocean and the Okhotsk Sea through Atmospheric Circulation

Abstract

Contemporary climate science seeks to understand the rate and magnitude of a warming global climate and how it impacts regional variability and teleconnections. One of the key drivers of regional climate is the observed reduction in end of summer sea-ice extent over the Arctic. Here the authors show that interannual variations between the September Arctic sea-ice concentration, especially in the East Siberian Sea, and the maximum Okhotsk sea-ice extent in the following winter are positively correlated, which is not explained by the recent warming trend only. An increase of sea ice both in the East Siberian Sea and the Okhotsk Sea and corresponding atmospheric patterns, showing a seesaw between positive anomalies of sea level pressures over the Arctic Ocean and negative anomalies over the midlatitudes, are related to cold anomalies over the high-latitude Eurasian continent. The patterns of atmospheric circulation and air temperatures are similar to those of the annually integrated Arctic Oscillation (AO). The negative annual AO forms colder anomalies in autumn sea surface temperatures both over the East Siberian Sea and the Okhotsk Sea, which causes heavy sea-ice conditions in both seas through season-to-season persistence.

The relationship between summer sea ice extent in Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean via the atmospheric circulation

“…Several previous studies (Qian et al , ; Hochheim et al , ; Bhatt et al , ; Ogi et al , ) have implied a relationship between SIEs in Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean, and suggested that the overlying atmospheric circulation patterns are responsible for this connection. To test this hypothesis, we analyze the relationship between SIEs in Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean across the interannual and multidecadal time scales.…”

“…The negative trend in the Arctic sea ice has been accelerating since the mid-1990s (Comiso et al, 2008;Deser and Teng, 2008), and the atmospheric circulation and surface wind forcing have caused changes of the Arctic sea ice trend (Screen et al, 2011;Ogi and Rigor, 2013). The influence of recent low Arctic SIE is not only limited to the Arctic climate change but has also impacted climate variabilities and changes in mid-latitudes with atmospheric variations (e.g., Honda et al, 2009;Orsolini et al, 2011;Bhatt et al, 2013;Ogi et al, 2015).…”

Recently Amplified Interannual Variability of the Great Lakes Ice Cover in Response to Changing Teleconnections

“…Recent studies have shown evidence of Arctic-midlatitude interactions that influence winter weather conditions over Eurasia and North America (Honda et al 2009;Liu et al 2012;Cohen et al 2014;Ogi et al 2015;Francis et al 2009;Wang et al 2018). Arctic surface air temperature in winter rose significantly after 1998, where the trends have been stronger over the Barents-Kara Seas and East Siberian-Chukchi Seas, and the warm Arctic surface air temperature has often been observed to follow a reduction of autumn sea ice (Kug et al 2015).…”

Analysis of Intraseasonal Oscillation Characteristics of Arctic Summer Sea Ice

“…Previous studies have pointed out that the negative AO can lead to abnormal warming of the Arctic region, resulting in reduced sea ice extent and thinner multiyear ice in the Arctic (Alexander et al, ; Ogi et al, ; Rigor et al, ). Figure d presents the AO index in 1979–2017, which shows a change from positive to negative phase of AO during the past decades.…”