Ultrafast Arctic amplification and its governing mechanisms ...

Arctic amplification (AA), defined as the enhanced warming of the Arctic compared to the global average, is a robust feature of historical observations and simulations of future climate. Despite many studies investigating AA mechanisms, their relative importance remains contested. In this study, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Janoski, Tyler P., Previdi, Michael, Chiodo, Gabriel, Smith, Karen L., Polvani, Lorenzo M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: ETH Zurich 2023
Subjects:
arctic amplification
sea ice
heat transport
turbulent heat flux
radiative feedback
Arctic
Sea ice
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000651805
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/651805
Description
Summary:Arctic amplification (AA), defined as the enhanced warming of the Arctic compared to the global average, is a robust feature of historical observations and simulations of future climate. Despite many studies investigating AA mechanisms, their relative importance remains contested. In this study, we examine the different timescales of these mechanisms to improve our understanding of AA's fundamental causes. We use the Community Earth System Model v1, Large Ensemble configuration (CESM-LE), to generate large ensembles of 2 years simulations subjected to an instantaneous quadrupling of CO2. We show that AA emerges almost immediately (within days) following CO2 increase and before any significant loss of Arctic sea ice has occurred. Through a detailed energy budget analysis of the atmospheric column, we determine the time-varying contributions of AA mechanisms over the simulation period. Additionally, we examine the dependence of these mechanisms on the season of CO2 quadrupling. We find that the surface heat ... : Environmental Research: Climate, 2 (3) ...

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