Recent autumn sea ice loss in the eastern Arctic enhanced by summer Asian-Pacific Oscillation

Abstract Recent rapid Arctic sea ice loss was documented as combined results from anthropogenic forcing and climate system internal variability. However, the role of internal variability is not well understood. Here, we propose that the Asian-Pacific Oscillation (APO), an intrinsic atmospheric mode...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Botao Zhou, Ziyi Song, Zhicong Yin, Xinping Xu, Bo Sun, Pangchi Hsu, Haishan Chen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024
Subjects:
Science
Q
East Siberian Sea
Kara-Laptev
laptev
North Atlantic
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47051-8
https://doaj.org/article/e509d3878bfc47eb827acbb9f4232b0a
Description
Summary:Abstract Recent rapid Arctic sea ice loss was documented as combined results from anthropogenic forcing and climate system internal variability. However, the role of internal variability is not well understood. Here, we propose that the Asian-Pacific Oscillation (APO), an intrinsic atmospheric mode featuring out-of-phase variations in upper-tropospheric temperatures between Asia and the North Pacific, is one driver for autumn sea ice variability in the eastern Arctic. The positive summer APO favors warming of the mid-latitude North Atlantic sea surface temperatures. This warming persists to autumn and in turn triggers strong anticyclonic anomalies over the Barents-Kara-Laptev Seas and weak lower-tropospheric cyclonic anomalies over the East Siberian Sea, enhancing moisture transport into the eastern Arctic. Such changes consequently increase lower-tropospheric humidity, downwelling longwave radiation, and surface air temperature in the eastern Arctic, thereby melting sea ice. Hence, a recent tendency of the summer APO towards the positive phase accelerates autumn sea ice loss in the eastern Arctic.

Similar Items