Sea ice-air interactions amplify multidecadal variability in the North Atlantic and Arctic region.

Nat Commun

Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, 12222, USA.

Published: April 2022

Winter surface air temperature (Tas) over the Barents-Kara Seas (BKS) and other Arctic regions has experienced rapid warming since the late 1990s that has been linked to the concurring cooling over Eurasia, and these multidecadal trends are attributed partly to internal variability. However, how such variability is generated is unclear. Through analyses of observations and model simulations, we show that sea ice-air two-way interactions amplify multidecadal variability in sea-ice cover, sea surface temperatures (SST) and Tas from the North Atlantic to BKS, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) mainly through variations in surface fluxes. When sea ice is fixed in flux calculations, multidecadal variations are reduced substantially (by 20-50%) not only in Arctic Tas, but also in North Atlantic SST and AMOC. The results suggest that sea ice-air interactions are crucial for multidecadal climate variability in both the Arctic and North Atlantic, similar to air-sea interactions for tropical climate.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9018715PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29810-7DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

north atlantic
16
sea ice-air
12
ice-air interactions
8
interactions amplify
8
amplify multidecadal
8
multidecadal variability
8
tas north
8
sea
5
multidecadal
5
variability
5

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!