Similarities and Differences in Arctic Sea‐Ice Loss During the Solar‐Forced Last Interglacial Warming (127 Kyr BP) and CO2‐Forced Future Warming

Abstract Based on a 7‐member global circulation model ensemble from CMIP6/PMIP4, we compare the regional distribution of Arctic sea ice between a simulation representing the Last Interglacial (LIG) climate, with solar‐forced warming, and an idealized future CO2‐forced simulation with a similar annua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Marie Sicard, Agatha M. deBoer, Helen K. Coxall, Torben Koenigk, Mehdi Pasha Karami, Martin Jakobsson, Matt O’Regan
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023
Subjects:
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
Arctic
Baffin Bay
Greenland
Pacific
Baffin
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104782
https://doaj.org/article/0acecd5c8c7e4218be9278533ec0938e
Description
Summary:Abstract Based on a 7‐member global circulation model ensemble from CMIP6/PMIP4, we compare the regional distribution of Arctic sea ice between a simulation representing the Last Interglacial (LIG) climate, with solar‐forced warming, and an idealized future CO2‐forced simulation with a similar annual sea‐ice volume. The two simulations feature small but robust differences in the Central Arctic and Baffin Bay during summer, and larger differences at the sea‐ice margins in the sub‐Arctic Atlantic and North Pacific sectors during winter. Our results indicate that, under both forcings, sea ice persists north of Greenland until late summer, suggesting that the assumption that this region is the “Last Ice Area” is robust and holds for other climate states. However, we show that processes influencing sea‐ice distribution in winter, such as Atlantification and sea‐ice drift, differ and need to be further investigated.

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