Effects of intraseasonal variations of the Arctic Oscillation on the Barents Sea

• Main Authors: Wu,Bingyi, Wang,Jia, Zhang,Renhe
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences/International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks/Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences 2004
• Subjects: Arctic Oscillation; North Atlantic water; Barents Sea; sea ice; sea water temperature; Arctic; North Atlantic; Polar meteorology and glaciology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2974; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00002974/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2974&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

This paper investigates possible connections among the wintertime Arctic Oscillation(AO), North Atlantic water inflow into the Barents Sea, and sea ice and sea water temperature in the Barents Sea on monthly to seasonal time scales using a coupled sea-ice-ocean model. The forcing is from winters with large anomalies of the AO. The inflow of the North Atlantic water into the Barents Sea forced by significantly different wind stresses over the area south of the Barents Sea shows a close relation to the AO only during the AO high-phase periods rather than during the low-phase periods. The responses to forcing by the opposite phases of the AO differ substantially in surface and subsurface water temperature of the Barents Sea. The positive phase of the AO raises subsurface water temperature in the Barents Sea, with concurrent surface cooling in the western and central Barents Sea. One exception is in the eastern Barents Sea where the surface water temperature is higher during the positive phase than during the negative phase. The enhanced net inflow of warmer Atlantic water into the Barents Sea causes decrease of sea ice.