A CESM2 model hierarchy for assessing the causes of dramatic interannual variability in Antarctic sea ice extent ...

• Main Authors: England, Mark, Feldl, Nicole
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Pacific; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.57757/iugg23-1972; https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5017567

<!--!introduction!--> Between 2014 and 2017, the Antarctic experienced a drastic loss of annual-mean sea ice extent (SIE) of 2 million square kilometers. This precipitous decline in SIE was a five-sigma event compared to previously observed variability since 1979. A number of studies have suggested a range of potential causes of this rare event including fluctuations in the Southern Annular Mode and teleconnections to Tropical Pacific variability. It is imperative to understand the underlying drivers of Antarctic SIE interannual variability because it is unclear whether the recent decline in SIE is due to internal variability or is instead the belated emergence of the global warming signal. Here we explore the fundamental processes contributing to the interannual variability of Antarctic SIE in a state of the art global climate model with idealized boundary conditions. We employ CESM2-CAM6 coupled to a slab ocean in a hierarchy of idealised configurations to systematically quantify the role of seasonal ... : The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023) ...