Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections
Ocean heat transport is often thought to play a secondary role for Arctic surface warming in part because warm water which flows northward is prevented from reaching the surface by a cold and stable halocline layer. However, recent observations in various regions indicate that occasionally, warm wat...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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ftsubggeo:oai:e-docs.geo-leo.de:11858/8910 2023-05-15T13:11:06+02:00 Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections Metzner, Enrico P. Salzmann, Marc Gerdes, Rüdiger 2020 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015554 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8910 eng eng doi:10.1029/2019JC015554 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8910 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY ddc:551.46 ddc:551.6 Arctic climate change cold halocline climate modeling doc-type:article 2020 ftsubggeo https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015554 2022-11-09T06:51:38Z Ocean heat transport is often thought to play a secondary role for Arctic surface warming in part because warm water which flows northward is prevented from reaching the surface by a cold and stable halocline layer. However, recent observations in various regions indicate that occasionally, warm water is found directly below the surface mixed layer. Here we investigate Arctic Ocean surface energy fluxes and the cold halocline layer in climate model simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5. An ensemble of 15 models shows decreased sea ice formation and increased ocean energy release during fall, winter, and spring for a high-emission future scenario. Along the main pathways for warm water advection, this increased energy release is not locally balanced by increased Arctic Ocean energy uptake in summer. Because during Arctic winter, the ocean mixed layer is mainly heated from below, we analyze changes of the cold halocline layer in the monthly mean Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 data. Fresh water acts to stabilize the upper ocean as expected based on previous studies. We find that in spite of this stabilizing effect, periods in which warm water is found directly or almost directly below the mixed layer and which occur mainly in winter and spring become more frequent in high-emission future scenario simulations, especially along the main pathways for warm water advection. This could reduce sea ice formation and surface albedo. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Sea ice GEO-LEOe-docs (FID GEO) Arctic Arctic Ocean Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125 2 |
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Open Polar |
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GEO-LEOe-docs (FID GEO) |
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ftsubggeo |
language |
English |
topic |
ddc:551.46 ddc:551.6 Arctic climate change cold halocline climate modeling |
spellingShingle |
ddc:551.46 ddc:551.6 Arctic climate change cold halocline climate modeling Metzner, Enrico P. Salzmann, Marc Gerdes, Rüdiger Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections |
topic_facet |
ddc:551.46 ddc:551.6 Arctic climate change cold halocline climate modeling |
description |
Ocean heat transport is often thought to play a secondary role for Arctic surface warming in part because warm water which flows northward is prevented from reaching the surface by a cold and stable halocline layer. However, recent observations in various regions indicate that occasionally, warm water is found directly below the surface mixed layer. Here we investigate Arctic Ocean surface energy fluxes and the cold halocline layer in climate model simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5. An ensemble of 15 models shows decreased sea ice formation and increased ocean energy release during fall, winter, and spring for a high-emission future scenario. Along the main pathways for warm water advection, this increased energy release is not locally balanced by increased Arctic Ocean energy uptake in summer. Because during Arctic winter, the ocean mixed layer is mainly heated from below, we analyze changes of the cold halocline layer in the monthly mean Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 data. Fresh water acts to stabilize the upper ocean as expected based on previous studies. We find that in spite of this stabilizing effect, periods in which warm water is found directly or almost directly below the mixed layer and which occur mainly in winter and spring become more frequent in high-emission future scenario simulations, especially along the main pathways for warm water advection. This could reduce sea ice formation and surface albedo. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Metzner, Enrico P. Salzmann, Marc Gerdes, Rüdiger |
author_facet |
Metzner, Enrico P. Salzmann, Marc Gerdes, Rüdiger |
author_sort |
Metzner, Enrico P. |
title |
Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections |
title_short |
Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections |
title_full |
Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections |
title_fullStr |
Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic Ocean Surface Energy Flux and the Cold Halocline in Future Climate Projections |
title_sort |
arctic ocean surface energy flux and the cold halocline in future climate projections |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015554 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8910 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
albedo Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Arctic Ocean Climate change Sea ice |
op_relation |
doi:10.1029/2019JC015554 http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/8910 |
op_rights |
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015554 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
125 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1766245951861686272 |