Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline
Arctic sea ice area has been decreasing for the past two decades. Apart from melting, the southward drift through Fram Strait is the main ice loss mechanism. We present high resolution sea ice drift data across 79° N from 2004 to 2010. Ice drift has been derived from radar satellite data and corresp...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2011
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 https://doaj.org/article/f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d 2023-05-15T14:54:51+02:00 Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline L. H. Smedsrud A. Sirevaag K. Kloster A. Sorteberg S. Sandven 2011-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 https://doaj.org/article/f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.the-cryosphere.net/5/821/2011/tc-5-821-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d The Cryosphere, Vol 5, Iss 4, Pp 821-829 (2011) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2011 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 2022-12-31T00:20:00Z Arctic sea ice area has been decreasing for the past two decades. Apart from melting, the southward drift through Fram Strait is the main ice loss mechanism. We present high resolution sea ice drift data across 79° N from 2004 to 2010. Ice drift has been derived from radar satellite data and corresponds well with variability in local geostrophic wind. The underlying East Greenland current contributes with a constant southward speed close to 5 cm s −1 , and drives around a third of the ice export. We use geostrophic winds derived from reanalysis data to calculate the Fram Strait ice area export back to 1957, finding that the sea ice area export recently is about 25% larger than during the 1960's. The increase in ice export occurred mostly during winter and is directly connected to higher southward ice drift velocities, due to stronger geostrophic winds. The increase in ice drift is large enough to counteract a decrease in ice concentration of the exported sea ice. Using storm tracking we link changes in geostrophic winds to more intense Nordic Sea low pressure systems. Annual sea ice area export likely has a significant influence on the summer sea ice variability and we find low values in the 1960's, the late 1980's and 1990's, and particularly high values during 2005–2008. The study highlights the possible role of variability in ice export as an explanatory factor for understanding the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice during the last decades. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic East Greenland east greenland current Fram Strait Greenland Nordic Sea Sea ice The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Greenland The Cryosphere 5 4 821 829 |
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 L. H. Smedsrud A. Sirevaag K. Kloster A. Sorteberg S. Sandven Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Arctic sea ice area has been decreasing for the past two decades. Apart from melting, the southward drift through Fram Strait is the main ice loss mechanism. We present high resolution sea ice drift data across 79° N from 2004 to 2010. Ice drift has been derived from radar satellite data and corresponds well with variability in local geostrophic wind. The underlying East Greenland current contributes with a constant southward speed close to 5 cm s −1 , and drives around a third of the ice export. We use geostrophic winds derived from reanalysis data to calculate the Fram Strait ice area export back to 1957, finding that the sea ice area export recently is about 25% larger than during the 1960's. The increase in ice export occurred mostly during winter and is directly connected to higher southward ice drift velocities, due to stronger geostrophic winds. The increase in ice drift is large enough to counteract a decrease in ice concentration of the exported sea ice. Using storm tracking we link changes in geostrophic winds to more intense Nordic Sea low pressure systems. Annual sea ice area export likely has a significant influence on the summer sea ice variability and we find low values in the 1960's, the late 1980's and 1990's, and particularly high values during 2005–2008. The study highlights the possible role of variability in ice export as an explanatory factor for understanding the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice during the last decades. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
L. H. Smedsrud A. Sirevaag K. Kloster A. Sorteberg S. Sandven |
author_facet |
L. H. Smedsrud A. Sirevaag K. Kloster A. Sorteberg S. Sandven |
author_sort |
L. H. Smedsrud |
title |
Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline |
title_short |
Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline |
title_full |
Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline |
title_fullStr |
Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline |
title_sort |
recent wind driven high sea ice area export in the fram strait contributes to arctic sea ice decline |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 https://doaj.org/article/f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic East Greenland east greenland current Fram Strait Greenland Nordic Sea Sea ice The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Arctic East Greenland east greenland current Fram Strait Greenland Nordic Sea Sea ice The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 5, Iss 4, Pp 821-829 (2011) |
op_relation |
http://www.the-cryosphere.net/5/821/2011/tc-5-821-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/f56770fd191c44e9b450d5532ecaf72d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-821-2011 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
821 |
op_container_end_page |
829 |
_version_ |
1766326596507009024 |