Warm‐air advection, air mass transformation and fog causes rapid ice melt
Direct observations during intense warm-air advection over the East Siberian Sea reveal a period of rapid sea-ice melt. A semi-stationary, high-pressure system north of the Bering Strait forced northward advection of warm, moist air from the continent. Air-mass transfor-mation over melting sea ice f...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Geophysical Union
2015
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87105/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87105/7/Tjernstr-m_et_al-2015-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064373 |
Summary: | Direct observations during intense warm-air advection over the East Siberian Sea reveal a period of rapid sea-ice melt. A semi-stationary, high-pressure system north of the Bering Strait forced northward advection of warm, moist air from the continent. Air-mass transfor-mation over melting sea ice formed a strong, surface-based temperature inversion in which dense fog formed. This induced a positive net longwave radiation at the surface, while reduc-ing net solar radiation only marginally; the inversion also resulted in downward turbulent heat flux. The sum of these processes enhanced the surface energy flux by an average of ~15 W m-2 for a week. Satellite images before and after the episode show sea-ice concentrations decreasing from > 90% to ~50% over a large area affected by the air-mass transformation. We argue that this rapid melt was triggered by the increased heat flux from the atmosphere due to the warm-air advection. |
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