Impact of the El Nino on the Variability of the Antarctic Sea Ice Extent

• Main Authors: Jinnian, Chen, Jianting, Chu, Lanying, Xu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2004
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Amundsen Sea; Bellingshausen Sea; Pacific; Antarc*; Polar Science; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2268/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2268/1/A200401003.pdf

In this paper, the spreading way in the southern hemisphere that anomalous warm water piled in tropical eastern Pacific is analyzed and then impact of El Nino on the variability of the Antarctic sea ice extent is investigated by using a dataset from 1970 to 2002. The analysis result show that in El Nino event the anomalous warm water piled in tropical eastern Pacific is poleward propagation yet the westward propagation along southern equator current hasn't been discovered. The poleward propagation time of the anomalous warm water is about 1 year or so. El Nino event has a close relationship with the sea ice extent in the Amundsen sea, Bellingshausen sea and Antarctic peninsula. After El Nino appears, there is a lag of two years that the sea ice in the Amundsen sea, Bellingshausen sea, especially in the Antarctic peninsula decreases obviously. The processes that El Nino has influence with Antarctic sea ice extent is the warm water piled in tropical eastern Pacific poleward propagation along off the coast of southern America and cause the anomalous temperature raise in near pole and then lead the sea ice in Amundsen sea, Bellingshausen sea and Antarctic peninsula to decrease where the obvious decrease of the sea ice since 80' decade has close relation to the frequently appearance of El Nino.