Sea ice thickness and recent Arctic warming

Andreas Lang; Shuting Yang; Eigil Kaas

doi:10.1002/2016GL071274

Sea ice thickness and recent Arctic warming

Andreas Lang, Shuting Yang, Eigil Kaas

33 Citations (Scopus)

70 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The climatic impact of increased Arctic sea ice loss has received growing attention in the last years. However, little focus has been set on the role of sea ice thickness, although it strongly determines surface heat fluxes. Here ensembles of simulations using the EC-Earth atmospheric model (Integrated Forecast System) are performed and analyzed to quantify the atmospheric impacts of Arctic sea ice thickness change since 1982 as revealed by the sea ice model assimilation Global Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System. Results show that the recent sea ice thinning has significantly affected the Arctic climate, while remote atmospheric responses are less pronounced owing to a high internal atmospheric variability. Locally, the sea ice thinning results in enhancement of near-surface warming of about 1°C per decade in winter, which is most pronounced over marginal sea ice areas with thin ice. This leads to an increase of the Arctic amplification factor by 37%.

Original language	English
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	44
Pages (from-to)	409–418
Number of pages	10
ISSN	0094-8276
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071274
Publication status	Published - 16 Jan 2017

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title = "Sea ice thickness and recent Arctic warming",

abstract = "The climatic impact of increased Arctic sea ice loss has received growing attention in the last years. However, little focus has been set on the role of sea ice thickness, although it strongly determines surface heat fluxes. Here ensembles of simulations using the EC-Earth atmospheric model (Integrated Forecast System) are performed and analyzed to quantify the atmospheric impacts of Arctic sea ice thickness change since 1982 as revealed by the sea ice model assimilation Global Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System. Results show that the recent sea ice thinning has significantly affected the Arctic climate, while remote atmospheric responses are less pronounced owing to a high internal atmospheric variability. Locally, the sea ice thinning results in enhancement of near-surface warming of about 1°C per decade in winter, which is most pronounced over marginal sea ice areas with thin ice. This leads to an increase of the Arctic amplification factor by 37%.",

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journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

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T1 - Sea ice thickness and recent Arctic warming

AU - Lang, Andreas

AU - Yang, Shuting

AU - Kaas, Eigil

PY - 2017/1/16

Y1 - 2017/1/16

N2 - The climatic impact of increased Arctic sea ice loss has received growing attention in the last years. However, little focus has been set on the role of sea ice thickness, although it strongly determines surface heat fluxes. Here ensembles of simulations using the EC-Earth atmospheric model (Integrated Forecast System) are performed and analyzed to quantify the atmospheric impacts of Arctic sea ice thickness change since 1982 as revealed by the sea ice model assimilation Global Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System. Results show that the recent sea ice thinning has significantly affected the Arctic climate, while remote atmospheric responses are less pronounced owing to a high internal atmospheric variability. Locally, the sea ice thinning results in enhancement of near-surface warming of about 1°C per decade in winter, which is most pronounced over marginal sea ice areas with thin ice. This leads to an increase of the Arctic amplification factor by 37%.

AB - The climatic impact of increased Arctic sea ice loss has received growing attention in the last years. However, little focus has been set on the role of sea ice thickness, although it strongly determines surface heat fluxes. Here ensembles of simulations using the EC-Earth atmospheric model (Integrated Forecast System) are performed and analyzed to quantify the atmospheric impacts of Arctic sea ice thickness change since 1982 as revealed by the sea ice model assimilation Global Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System. Results show that the recent sea ice thinning has significantly affected the Arctic climate, while remote atmospheric responses are less pronounced owing to a high internal atmospheric variability. Locally, the sea ice thinning results in enhancement of near-surface warming of about 1°C per decade in winter, which is most pronounced over marginal sea ice areas with thin ice. This leads to an increase of the Arctic amplification factor by 37%.

U2 - 10.1002/2016GL071274

DO - 10.1002/2016GL071274

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 44

SP - 409

EP - 418

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

ER -

Sea ice thickness and recent Arctic warming

Abstract

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