Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model
For this scientific paper, we study the atmospheric response to an open-ocean polynya in the Southern Ocean by analyzing the results from an atmospheric and oceanic synoptic-scale resolving Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulation. While coarser-resolution versions of CESM generally do not pro...
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1338761 2023-07-30T04:06:47+02:00 Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model Weijer, Wilbert Veneziani, Carmela Stoessel, Achim Hecht, Matthew W. Jeffery, Nicole Hodos, Travis 2021-07-21 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338761 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1338761 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338761 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1338761 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES 2021 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 2023-07-11T09:16:43Z For this scientific paper, we study the atmospheric response to an open-ocean polynya in the Southern Ocean by analyzing the results from an atmospheric and oceanic synoptic-scale resolving Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulation. While coarser-resolution versions of CESM generally do not produce open-ocean polynyas in the Southern Ocean, they do emerge and disappear on interannual timescales in the synoptic-scale simulation. This provides an ideal opportunity to study the polynya’s impact on the overlying and surrounding atmosphere. This has been pursued here by investigating the seasonal cycle of differences of surface and air-column variables between polynya and non-polynya years. Our results indicate significant local impacts on turbulent heat fluxes, precipitation, cloud characteristics, and radiative fluxes. In particular, we find that clouds over polynyas are optically thicker and higher than clouds over sea ice during non-polynya years. Although the lower albedo of polynyas significantly increases the net shortwave absorption, the enhanced cloud brightness tempers this increase by almost 50%. Also, in this model, enhanced longwave radiation emitted from the warmer surface of polynyas is balanced by stronger downwelling fluxes from the thicker cloud deck. Impacts are found to be sensitive to the synoptic wind direction. Strongest regional impacts are found when northeasterly winds cross the polynya and interact with katabatic winds. Finally, surface air pressure anomalies over the polynya are only found to be significant when cold, dry air masses strike over the polynya, i.e. in case of southerly winds. Other/Unknown Material Sea ice Southern Ocean SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Southern Ocean Journal of Climate 30 5 1629 1641 |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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ftosti |
language |
unknown |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES Weijer, Wilbert Veneziani, Carmela Stoessel, Achim Hecht, Matthew W. Jeffery, Nicole Hodos, Travis Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model |
topic_facet |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 58 GEOSCIENCES |
description |
For this scientific paper, we study the atmospheric response to an open-ocean polynya in the Southern Ocean by analyzing the results from an atmospheric and oceanic synoptic-scale resolving Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulation. While coarser-resolution versions of CESM generally do not produce open-ocean polynyas in the Southern Ocean, they do emerge and disappear on interannual timescales in the synoptic-scale simulation. This provides an ideal opportunity to study the polynya’s impact on the overlying and surrounding atmosphere. This has been pursued here by investigating the seasonal cycle of differences of surface and air-column variables between polynya and non-polynya years. Our results indicate significant local impacts on turbulent heat fluxes, precipitation, cloud characteristics, and radiative fluxes. In particular, we find that clouds over polynyas are optically thicker and higher than clouds over sea ice during non-polynya years. Although the lower albedo of polynyas significantly increases the net shortwave absorption, the enhanced cloud brightness tempers this increase by almost 50%. Also, in this model, enhanced longwave radiation emitted from the warmer surface of polynyas is balanced by stronger downwelling fluxes from the thicker cloud deck. Impacts are found to be sensitive to the synoptic wind direction. Strongest regional impacts are found when northeasterly winds cross the polynya and interact with katabatic winds. Finally, surface air pressure anomalies over the polynya are only found to be significant when cold, dry air masses strike over the polynya, i.e. in case of southerly winds. |
author |
Weijer, Wilbert Veneziani, Carmela Stoessel, Achim Hecht, Matthew W. Jeffery, Nicole Hodos, Travis |
author_facet |
Weijer, Wilbert Veneziani, Carmela Stoessel, Achim Hecht, Matthew W. Jeffery, Nicole Hodos, Travis |
author_sort |
Weijer, Wilbert |
title |
Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model |
title_short |
Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model |
title_full |
Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model |
title_fullStr |
Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Local Atmospheric Response to an Open-Ocean Polynya in a High-Resolution Climate Model |
title_sort |
local atmospheric response to an open-ocean polynya in a high-resolution climate model |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338761 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1338761 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338761 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1338761 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0120.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Climate |
container_volume |
30 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1629 |
op_container_end_page |
1641 |
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1772819687864795136 |