Research Summaries

Back Collaborative Research: Towards Advanced Understanding and Improved Decadal/Centennial Prediction of Arctic Sea Ice State and Climate Change

Fiscal Year 2011
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Oceanography
Investigator(s) Maslowski, Wieslaw
Sponsor National Science Foundation (NSF)
Summary The Arctic is an integral part of the Earth's climate system through its influence on global surface energy and moisture fluxes, atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Recent warming of the Arctic climate and a decline in multi-year sea ice cover (Comiso et al. 2008; Kwok and Cunningham 2010) have significant ramifications to the entire pan-Arctic region and beyond. Studies confirm the importance of the Arctic in global climate, including mechanisms that could cause rapid transitions in regional climate (e.g. Overpeck et al. 2005; Lindsay and Zhang 2005; Eisenman and Wettlaufer 2009). The Arctic Ocean influences global climate and its variability in two primary ways. First, the perennial sea ice cover buffers air-sea thermodynamic and momentum fluxes (Rind et al., 1996; Washington and Meehl, 1996; Hunke 2010) and strongly influences absorption of solar radiation by the Earth. The ice-albedo feedback is arguably the most important in strongly coupling the Arctic with the rest of Earth climate. Second the sea ice and freshwater export via Fram Strait (Dickson et al. 1988; Cavalieri 2002; Kwok et al., 2004) and the Canadian Archipelago (Melling 2000; Howell et al 2009, McGeehan and Maslowski, 2010) into the North Atlantic can affect the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC; Hofmann and Rahmstorf 2009). Recent studies of North Atlantic Deep Water properties (Dickson et al. 2002) suggest a multi-decade freshening trend (Curry et al. 2003; Curry and Mauritzen 2005}, which affects long-term global ocean heat and salt transport through linkages to the ocean thermohaline circulation. Growing evidence based on observations (Belkin et al. 1998; Vinje, 2001; Hansen et al., 2001; Dickson et al., 2002, Kwok, 2008) and models (Maslowski et al. 2001; Holland et al., 2006; Wang and Overland 2009; McGeehan and Maslowski 2010) points to the Arctic Ocean as the main source of such changes.
Keywords
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal