Less winter cloud aids summer 2013 Arctic sea ice return from 2012 minimum

• Published in: Environmental Research Letters
• Main Authors: Yinghui Liu, Jeffrey R Key
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 2014
• Subjects: Arctic; sea ice; cloud; Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; TD1-1066; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Science; Q; Physics; QC1-999; Arctic Ocean; Chukchi; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/4/044002; https://doaj.org/article/d8451126091e4c579f4f2151c7d36a82

In September 2012, Arctic sea ice cover reached a record minimum for the satellite era. The following winter the sea ice quickly returned, carrying through to the summer when ice extent was 48% greater than the same time in 2012. Most of this rebound in the ice cover was in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, areas experiencing the greatest decline in sea ice over the last three decades. A variety of factors, including ice dynamics, oceanic and atmospheric heat transport, wind, and solar insolation anomalies, may have contributed to the rebound. Here we show that another factor, below-average Arctic cloud cover in January–February 2013, resulted in a more strongly negative surface radiation budget, cooling the surface and allowing for greater ice growth. More thick ice was observed in March 2013 relative to March 2012 in the western Arctic Ocean, and the areas of ice growth estimated from the negative cloud cover anomaly and advected from winter to summer with ice drift data, correspond well with the September ice concentration anomaly pattern. Therefore, decreased wintertime cloud cover appears to have played an important role in the return of the sea ice cover the following summer, providing a partial explanation for large year-to-year variations in an otherwise decreasing Arctic sea ice cover.