Causal Mechanisms of Sea-level and Freshwater Content Change in the Beaufort Sea ...

• Main Author: Fukumori, Ichiro
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Root 2023
• Subjects: Beaufort Sea; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48577/jpl.vsnuwe; https://dataverse.jpl.nasa.gov/citation?persistentId=doi:10.48577/jpl.VSNUWE

Sea level across the Beaufort Sea has risen at a rate exceeding 2 cm/yr during the past decade. The rapid sea level rise is dominantly halosteric, reflecting an increase in the region’s freshwater content by as much as 400 km3/yr. Here we study the nature and causal mechanism of this change and the attendant seasonal-to-decadal variation from 1992 to 2017 by quantifying their controlling processes using a coupled ocean circulation and sea ice model constrained by satellite and in situ observations. Surface stress and freshwaterflux associated with the melting and freezing of sea-ice are the primary driving forces of these variations, but their relative contribution varies with time-scale. Seasonal change is dictated by the sea-ice variation and interannual change is mostly wind-driven associated with Ekman transport. The two forcings, however, are equally important for decadalchanges that dominate the overall variation. Strengthening anticyclonic surface stresssurrounding the Beaufort Sea intensify the ...