Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season
The 2016 austral spring was characterized by the lowest Southern Hemisphere (SH) sea ice extent seen in the satellite record (1979 to present) and coincided with anomalously warm surface waters surrounding most of Antarctica. We show that two distinct processes contributed to this event: First, the...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074691 |
id |
ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_21059 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_21059 2023-09-05T13:13:21+02:00 Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season Stuecker, Malte F. (author) Bitz, Cecilia M. (author) Armour, Kyle C. (author) 2017-09-09 https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074691 en eng Geophysical Research Letters--Geophys. Res. Lett.--00948276 Near-Real-Time DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations, Version 1--10.5067/U8C09DWVX9LM Sea Ice Index, Version 2--10.7265/N5736NV7 Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data, Version 1--10.5067/8GQ8LZQVL0VL articles:21059 ark:/85065/d7k93b2p doi:10.1002/2017GL074691 Copyright 2017 American Geophysical Union. article Text 2017 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074691 2023-08-14T18:48:26Z The 2016 austral spring was characterized by the lowest Southern Hemisphere (SH) sea ice extent seen in the satellite record (1979 to present) and coincided with anomalously warm surface waters surrounding most of Antarctica. We show that two distinct processes contributed to this event: First, the extreme El Nino event peaking in December-February 2015/2016 contributed to pronounced extratropical SH sea surface temperature and sea ice extent anomalies in the eastern Ross, Amundsen, and Bellingshausen Seas that persisted in part until the following 2016 austral spring. Second, internal unforced atmospheric variability of the Southern Annular Mode promoted the exceptional low sea ice extent in November-December 2016. These results suggest that a combination of tropically forced and internal SH atmospheric variability contributed to the unprecedented sea ice decline during the 2016 austral spring, on top of a background of slow changes expected from greenhouse gas and ozone forcing. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Sea ice OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Antarctic Austral Geophysical Research Letters 44 17 9008 9019 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
The 2016 austral spring was characterized by the lowest Southern Hemisphere (SH) sea ice extent seen in the satellite record (1979 to present) and coincided with anomalously warm surface waters surrounding most of Antarctica. We show that two distinct processes contributed to this event: First, the extreme El Nino event peaking in December-February 2015/2016 contributed to pronounced extratropical SH sea surface temperature and sea ice extent anomalies in the eastern Ross, Amundsen, and Bellingshausen Seas that persisted in part until the following 2016 austral spring. Second, internal unforced atmospheric variability of the Southern Annular Mode promoted the exceptional low sea ice extent in November-December 2016. These results suggest that a combination of tropically forced and internal SH atmospheric variability contributed to the unprecedented sea ice decline during the 2016 austral spring, on top of a background of slow changes expected from greenhouse gas and ozone forcing. |
author2 |
Stuecker, Malte F. (author) Bitz, Cecilia M. (author) Armour, Kyle C. (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
spellingShingle |
Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
title_short |
Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
title_full |
Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
title_fullStr |
Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
title_full_unstemmed |
Conditions leading to the unprecedented low Antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
title_sort |
conditions leading to the unprecedented low antarctic sea ice extent during the 2016 austral spring season |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074691 |
geographic |
Antarctic Austral |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Austral |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Sea ice |
op_relation |
Geophysical Research Letters--Geophys. Res. Lett.--00948276 Near-Real-Time DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations, Version 1--10.5067/U8C09DWVX9LM Sea Ice Index, Version 2--10.7265/N5736NV7 Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data, Version 1--10.5067/8GQ8LZQVL0VL articles:21059 ark:/85065/d7k93b2p doi:10.1002/2017GL074691 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2017 American Geophysical Union. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074691 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
44 |
container_issue |
17 |
container_start_page |
9008 |
op_container_end_page |
9019 |
_version_ |
1776204659985219584 |