Sea-ice free Arctic contributes to the projected warming minimum in the North Atlantic

• Published in: Environmental Research Letters
• Main Authors: Lingling Suo, Yongqi Gao, Dong Guo, Ingo Bethke
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 2017
• Subjects: sea-ice free Arctic; North Atlantic warming minimum; AMOC weakening; regional climate change; atmosphere–ocean interaction; Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; TD1-1066; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Science; Q; Physics; QC1-999; Arctic; Bergen; Climate change; Global warming; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6a5e; https://doaj.org/article/f1c1d94a5cd54a50a79ce168126d7db0

Projected global warming is not spatially uniform and one of the minima in warming occurs in the North Atlantic (NA). Several models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 even projected a slight NA cooling in 2081–2100 relative to 1986–2005. Here we show that, by our simulations performed with the Bergen Climate Model (BCM), an autumn (September to November) sea-ice free Arctic (SIF) contributes to the NA warming minimum by weakening the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The role of the air–sea interaction in the response to the SIF, which has not been widely discussed in the literature, has been highlighted by the results presented in this study.