Enso-like periodicities in the Arctic cryosphere (review)

• Main Author: Nobuo Ono
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: National Institute of Polar Research 1996
• Subjects: Arctic; Svalbard; Greenland; Kamchatka Peninsula; arctic cryosphere; Kamchatka; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research; Sea ice; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2271; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00002271/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2271&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Attempts have been made to associate periodicities of interannual variations in the Arctic cryosphere with periodic phenomena occurring in other regions of the world such as the cycle of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO-like periodicities are recognized in interannual variations of sea-ice extent in subarctic seas and of net mass balance of glaciers in the Arctic. A large-scale seesaw phenomenon is found between two groups of subarctic seas separated by a line drawn from the Kamchatka Peninsula to the southernmost cape of Greenland. The net mass balances of two glaciers in Svalbard have a similar cycle in interannual variations with the ENSO cycle. It is noticeable that there is an apparent correlation involving four major ENSO events and little time-lag between the year of less net mass balance of glaciers in Svalbard and the ENSO year.