Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014
The main drivers of the continental Northern Hemisphere snow cover are investigated in the 1979–2014 period. Four observational datasets are used as are two large multi-model ensembles of atmosphere-only simulations with prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentration (SIC). A fir...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 https://doaj.org/article/d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 2023-06-11T04:09:51+02:00 Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 G. Gastineau C. Frankignoul Y. Gao Y.-C. Liang Y.-O. Kwon A. Cherchi R. Ghosh E. Manzini D. Matei J. Mecking L. Suo T. Tian S. Yang Y. Zhang 2023-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 https://doaj.org/article/d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2157/2023/tc-17-2157-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 The Cryosphere, Vol 17, Pp 2157-2184 (2023) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 2023-05-28T00:35:41Z The main drivers of the continental Northern Hemisphere snow cover are investigated in the 1979–2014 period. Four observational datasets are used as are two large multi-model ensembles of atmosphere-only simulations with prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentration (SIC). A first ensemble uses observed interannually varying SST and SIC conditions for 1979–2014, while a second ensemble is identical except for SIC with a repeated climatological cycle used. SST and external forcing typically explain 10 % to 25 % of the snow cover variance in model simulations, with a dominant forcing from the tropical and North Pacific SST during this period. In terms of the climate influence of the snow cover anomalies, both observations and models show no robust links between the November and April snow cover variability and the atmospheric circulation 1 month later. On the other hand, the first mode of Eurasian snow cover variability in January, with more extended snow over western Eurasia, is found to precede an atmospheric circulation pattern by 1 month, similar to a negative Arctic oscillation (AO). A decomposition of the variability in the model simulations shows that this relationship is mainly due to internal climate variability. Detailed outputs from one of the models indicate that the western Eurasia snow cover anomalies are preceded by a negative AO phase accompanied by a Ural blocking pattern and a stratospheric polar vortex weakening. The link between the AO and the snow cover variability is strongly related to the concomitant role of the stratospheric polar vortex, with the Eurasian snow cover acting as a positive feedback for the AO variability in winter. No robust influence of the SIC variability is found, as the sea ice loss in these simulations only drives an insignificant fraction of the snow cover anomalies, with few agreements among models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Sea ice The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Pacific The Cryosphere 17 5 2157 2184 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 G. Gastineau C. Frankignoul Y. Gao Y.-C. Liang Y.-O. Kwon A. Cherchi R. Ghosh E. Manzini D. Matei J. Mecking L. Suo T. Tian S. Yang Y. Zhang Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
The main drivers of the continental Northern Hemisphere snow cover are investigated in the 1979–2014 period. Four observational datasets are used as are two large multi-model ensembles of atmosphere-only simulations with prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentration (SIC). A first ensemble uses observed interannually varying SST and SIC conditions for 1979–2014, while a second ensemble is identical except for SIC with a repeated climatological cycle used. SST and external forcing typically explain 10 % to 25 % of the snow cover variance in model simulations, with a dominant forcing from the tropical and North Pacific SST during this period. In terms of the climate influence of the snow cover anomalies, both observations and models show no robust links between the November and April snow cover variability and the atmospheric circulation 1 month later. On the other hand, the first mode of Eurasian snow cover variability in January, with more extended snow over western Eurasia, is found to precede an atmospheric circulation pattern by 1 month, similar to a negative Arctic oscillation (AO). A decomposition of the variability in the model simulations shows that this relationship is mainly due to internal climate variability. Detailed outputs from one of the models indicate that the western Eurasia snow cover anomalies are preceded by a negative AO phase accompanied by a Ural blocking pattern and a stratospheric polar vortex weakening. The link between the AO and the snow cover variability is strongly related to the concomitant role of the stratospheric polar vortex, with the Eurasian snow cover acting as a positive feedback for the AO variability in winter. No robust influence of the SIC variability is found, as the sea ice loss in these simulations only drives an insignificant fraction of the snow cover anomalies, with few agreements among models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
G. Gastineau C. Frankignoul Y. Gao Y.-C. Liang Y.-O. Kwon A. Cherchi R. Ghosh E. Manzini D. Matei J. Mecking L. Suo T. Tian S. Yang Y. Zhang |
author_facet |
G. Gastineau C. Frankignoul Y. Gao Y.-C. Liang Y.-O. Kwon A. Cherchi R. Ghosh E. Manzini D. Matei J. Mecking L. Suo T. Tian S. Yang Y. Zhang |
author_sort |
G. Gastineau |
title |
Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
title_short |
Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
title_full |
Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
title_fullStr |
Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Forcing and impact of the Northern Hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
title_sort |
forcing and impact of the northern hemisphere continental snow cover in 1979–2014 |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 https://doaj.org/article/d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 |
geographic |
Arctic Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Pacific |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 17, Pp 2157-2184 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2157/2023/tc-17-2157-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/d780ce61ffdd48e5ac44353b250554e7 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2157-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
2157 |
op_container_end_page |
2184 |
_version_ |
1768383857176870912 |