Interannual Influence of Antarctic Sea Ice on Southern Hemisphere Stratosphere‐Troposphere Coupling

Abstract While weakening of the boreal polar vortex may be caused by autumnal Arctic sea ice loss, less is known about the interannual influence of Antarctic sea ice on stratosphere‐troposphere coupling in the Southern Hemisphere. Identifying any relationship over the short satellite period is diffi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Divya Rea, Dillon Elsbury, Amy H. Butler, Lantao Sun, Yannick Peings, Gudrun Magnusdottir
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107478
https://doaj.org/article/22f5f08c93054dec95b51c613f873c4f
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Summary:Abstract While weakening of the boreal polar vortex may be caused by autumnal Arctic sea ice loss, less is known about the interannual influence of Antarctic sea ice on stratosphere‐troposphere coupling in the Southern Hemisphere. Identifying any relationship over the short satellite period is difficult due to sampling variability and anthropogenic modification of the austral polar vortex. To circumvent these issues, we use large ensembles of fixed boundary condition simulations from the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) and Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to assess if and how interannual fluctuations in winter Antarctic sea ice influence spring planetary‐scale waves and the coupled stratosphere‐troposphere circulation. Low Antarctic sea ice conditions are found to modulate tropospheric stationary waves to project constructively onto the climatological stationary wave, enhancing upward planetary wave propagation into the austral polar stratosphere. In WACCM, the resulting vortex weakening coincides with development of negative Southern Annular Mode conditions during September–November.