Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks
The inception of the Little Ice Age (~1400–1700 AD) is believed to have been driven by an interplay of external forcing and climate system internal variability. While the hemispheric signal seems to have been dominated by solar irradiance and volcanic eruptions, the understanding of mechanisms shapi...
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ftdatacite:10.7892/boris.47714 2023-05-15T15:13:09+02:00 Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks Lehner, Flavio Born, Andreas Stocker, Thomas Raible, Christoph 2013 application/pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.47714 http://boris.unibe.ch/47714/ en eng American Meteorological Society info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 550 Earth sciences & geology 530 Physics Text article-journal ScholarlyArticle 2013 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.47714 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z The inception of the Little Ice Age (~1400–1700 AD) is believed to have been driven by an interplay of external forcing and climate system internal variability. While the hemispheric signal seems to have been dominated by solar irradiance and volcanic eruptions, the understanding of mechanisms shaping the climate on a continental scale is less robust. In an ensemble of transient model simulations and a new type of sensitivity experiments with artificial sea ice growth, the authors identify a sea ice–ocean–atmosphere feedback mechanism that amplifies the Little Ice Age cooling in the North Atlantic–European region and produces the temperature pattern suggested by paleoclimatic reconstructions. Initiated by increasing negative forcing, the Arctic sea ice substantially expands at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. The excess of sea ice is exported to the subpolar North Atlantic, where it melts, thereby weakening convection of the ocean. Consequently, northward ocean heat transport is reduced, reinforcing the expansion of the sea ice and the cooling of the Northern Hemisphere. In the Nordic Seas, sea surface height anomalies cause the oceanic recirculation to strengthen at the expense of the warm Barents Sea inflow, thereby further reinforcing sea ice growth. The absent ocean–atmosphere heat flux in the Barents Sea results in an amplified cooling over Northern Europe. The positive nature of this feedback mechanism enables sea ice to remain in an expanded state for decades up to a century, favoring sustained cold periods over Europe such as the Little Ice Age. Support for the feedback mechanism comes from recent proxy reconstructions around the Nordic Seas. Text Arctic Barents Sea Nordic Seas North Atlantic Sea ice DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Arctic Barents Sea |
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550 Earth sciences & geology 530 Physics |
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550 Earth sciences & geology 530 Physics Lehner, Flavio Born, Andreas Stocker, Thomas Raible, Christoph Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
topic_facet |
550 Earth sciences & geology 530 Physics |
description |
The inception of the Little Ice Age (~1400–1700 AD) is believed to have been driven by an interplay of external forcing and climate system internal variability. While the hemispheric signal seems to have been dominated by solar irradiance and volcanic eruptions, the understanding of mechanisms shaping the climate on a continental scale is less robust. In an ensemble of transient model simulations and a new type of sensitivity experiments with artificial sea ice growth, the authors identify a sea ice–ocean–atmosphere feedback mechanism that amplifies the Little Ice Age cooling in the North Atlantic–European region and produces the temperature pattern suggested by paleoclimatic reconstructions. Initiated by increasing negative forcing, the Arctic sea ice substantially expands at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. The excess of sea ice is exported to the subpolar North Atlantic, where it melts, thereby weakening convection of the ocean. Consequently, northward ocean heat transport is reduced, reinforcing the expansion of the sea ice and the cooling of the Northern Hemisphere. In the Nordic Seas, sea surface height anomalies cause the oceanic recirculation to strengthen at the expense of the warm Barents Sea inflow, thereby further reinforcing sea ice growth. The absent ocean–atmosphere heat flux in the Barents Sea results in an amplified cooling over Northern Europe. The positive nature of this feedback mechanism enables sea ice to remain in an expanded state for decades up to a century, favoring sustained cold periods over Europe such as the Little Ice Age. Support for the feedback mechanism comes from recent proxy reconstructions around the Nordic Seas. |
format |
Text |
author |
Lehner, Flavio Born, Andreas Stocker, Thomas Raible, Christoph |
author_facet |
Lehner, Flavio Born, Andreas Stocker, Thomas Raible, Christoph |
author_sort |
Lehner, Flavio |
title |
Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
title_short |
Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
title_full |
Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
title_fullStr |
Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
title_full_unstemmed |
Amplified inception of European Little Ice Age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
title_sort |
amplified inception of european little ice age by sea ice-ocean-atmosphere feedbacks |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.47714 http://boris.unibe.ch/47714/ |
geographic |
Arctic Barents Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Barents Sea |
genre |
Arctic Barents Sea Nordic Seas North Atlantic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barents Sea Nordic Seas North Atlantic Sea ice |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.47714 |
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1766343746753921024 |