Atmospheric destabilization leads to Arctic Ocean winter surface wind intensification
The surface-amplified winter warming over the Arctic Ocean is accompanied by a pronounced intensification of near-surface winds, simulated by climate models and emerging in reanalysis data. Here, the influences of sea-ice decline, wind changes aloft, and atmospheric stability are revisited based on...
| Published in: | Communications Earth & Environment |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/59008/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/59008/1/s43247-024-01428-1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01428-1 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.04d58689-2525-4b15-9887-d25d2572cbf0 |
| Summary: | The surface-amplified winter warming over the Arctic Ocean is accompanied by a pronounced intensification of near-surface winds, simulated by climate models and emerging in reanalysis data. Here, the influences of sea-ice decline, wind changes aloft, and atmospheric stability are revisited based on CMIP6 historical and high-emission scenario and ERA5 reanalysis data. Spatial trend patterns suggest that near-surface wind intensification over the inner Arctic Ocean in winter is largely driven by an increasing downward momentum transfer due to a weakening atmospheric stratification. In contrast, a near-surface wind intensification in summer appears to be largely driven by accelerating winds aloft, amplified in a high-emission future by decreasing surface roughness due to sea-ice decline. In both seasons, differences in near-surface wind-speed trends are closely linked to atmospheric stability trends. Models suggest that by 2100 the lower troposphere may become as unstable in winter as in summer, implying a fundamental regime shift of the Arctic winter boundary layer. |
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