Atmospheric energy transport to the Arctic 1979–2012

• Published in: Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography
• Main Authors: Song-Miao Fan, Lucas M. Harris, Larry W. Horowitz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Stockholm University Press 2015
• Subjects: climate dynamics; Arctic climate warming amplification; Oceanography; GC1-1581; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Anet; Arctic; Canada; Greenland; Norwegian Sea; Greenland Sea; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusa.v67.25482; https://doaj.org/article/dfbe3182c05243ad951d53ac83284ee7

The Arctic troposphere has warmed faster than the global average over the last several decades. It was suggested that atmospheric northward energy transport (ANET) into the Arctic had contributed to tropospheric warming in the Arctic. Here we calculate ANET based on the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data from 1979 to 2012. During this period the zonally integrated energy flux into the Arctic has decreased rather than increased in all seasons. However, the trends are statistically insignificant except for the winter and annual mean fluxes. For the winter season, the transient eddy flux of energy increases over Greenland and the Greenland Sea and decreases over west-central Siberia (WCS). Trends in meridional wind variance and vorticity also indicate increasing transient eddy activity over Northern Canada, the Greenland Sea and the Norwegian Sea and decreasing activity over WCS. Inter-winter variations in local vorticity over the WCS are significantly anti-correlated with the Arctic climate.