Atmospheric circulation modulates the spatial variability of temperature in the Atlantic-Arctic region

• Published in: International Journal of Climatology
• Main Authors: Champagne, Olivier, Pohl, Benjamin, McKenzie, Shawn, Buoncristiani, Jean-François, Bernard, Eric, Joly, Daniel, Tolle, Florian
• Other Authors: School of Geography and earth sciences, McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Biogéosciences UMR 6282 Dijon (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Théoriser et modéliser pour aménager (UMR 6049) (ThéMA), Université de Franche-Comté (UFC), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté COMUE (UBFC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Bourgogne (UB)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: internal climate variability; arctic amplification; Atlantic–Arctic; atmospheric circulation; reanalyses; weather regimes; envir; geo; Arctic; Canada; Greenland; Norway; Atlantic Arctic; Atlantic-Arctic; Climate change; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6044; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02066207

International audience The Arctic region has experienced significant warming during the past two decades with major implications on the cryosphere. The causes of Arctic amplification are still an open question within the scientific community, attracting recent interest. The goal of this study is to quantify the contribution of atmospheric circulation on temperature variability in the Atlantic–Arctic region at decadal to intra‐annual timescales from 1951 to 2014. Daily 20th Century reanalyses geopotential height anomalies at 500 hPa were clustered into different weather regimes to assess their contribution to observed temperature variability. The results show that in winter, 25% of the warming (cooling) in the North Atlantic Ocean (northeastern Canada) is due to temporal decreases of high geopotential anomalies in Greenland. This regime influences air mass migration patterns, bringing less cold (warm) air masses into these regions. Additionally, atmospheric warming or cooling has been attributed to a change in nearby oceanic basin surface conditions because of sea ice decline. In summer, about 15% of the warming observed in Norwegian/Greenland Seas is related to an increase in temporal anticyclonic patterns. This ratio reaches 37% in Norway due to an amplification from downwards solar radiation. This study allows for better understanding how natural climate variability modulates the regional signature of climate change and estimating the uncertainties in climate projections.