The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast
Diminishing sea ice is impacting the wave field across the Arctic region. Recent observation- and model-based studies highlight the spatiotemporal influence of sea ice on offshore wave climatologies, but effects within the nearshore region are still poorly described. This study characterizes the wav...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2022
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1609/2022/tc-16-1609-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/article/2e049baa9d9f442a82c35635d9613697 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:2e049baa9d9f442a82c35635d9613697 2023-05-15T15:14:52+02:00 The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast K. Nederhoff L. Erikson A. Engelstad P. Bieniek J. Kasper 2022-05-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1609/2022/tc-16-1609-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/article/2e049baa9d9f442a82c35635d9613697 en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1609/2022/tc-16-1609-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/article/2e049baa9d9f442a82c35635d9613697 undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 16, Pp 1609-1629 (2022) envir geo Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2022 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 2023-01-22T19:13:41Z Diminishing sea ice is impacting the wave field across the Arctic region. Recent observation- and model-based studies highlight the spatiotemporal influence of sea ice on offshore wave climatologies, but effects within the nearshore region are still poorly described. This study characterizes the wave climate in the central Beaufort Sea coast from 1979 to 2019 by utilizing a wave hindcast model that uses ERA5 winds, waves, and ice concentrations as input. The spectral wave model SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore) is calibrated and validated based on more than 10 000 in situ time point measurements collected over a 13-year time period across the region, with friction variations and empirical coefficients for newly implemented empirical ice formulations for the open-water and shoulder seasons. Model results and trends are analyzed over the 41-year time period using the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test, including an estimate of Sen's slope. The model results show that the reduction in sea ice concentration correlates strongly with increases in average and extreme wave conditions. In particular, the open-water season extended by ∼96 d over the 41-year time period (∼2.4 d yr−1), resulting in a 5-fold increase in the yearly cumulative wave power. Moreover, the open-water season extends later into the year, resulting in relatively more open-water conditions during fall storms with high wind speeds. The later freeze-up results in an increase in the annual offshore median wave heights of 1 % yr−1 and an increase in the average number of rough wave days (defined as days when maximum wave heights exceed 2.5 m) from 1.5 in 1979 to 13.1 d in 2019. Trends in the nearshore areas deviate from the patterns offshore. Model results indicate a saturation limit for high wave heights in the shallow areas of Foggy Island Bay. Similar patterns are found for yearly cumulative wave power. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Beaufort Sea Sea ice The Cryosphere Unknown Arctic Island Bay ENVELOPE(-109.085,-109.085,59.534,59.534) Kendall ENVELOPE(-59.828,-59.828,-63.497,-63.497) The Cryosphere 16 5 1609 1629 |
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Open Polar |
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Unknown |
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language |
English |
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envir geo |
spellingShingle |
envir geo K. Nederhoff L. Erikson A. Engelstad P. Bieniek J. Kasper The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast |
topic_facet |
envir geo |
description |
Diminishing sea ice is impacting the wave field across the Arctic region. Recent observation- and model-based studies highlight the spatiotemporal influence of sea ice on offshore wave climatologies, but effects within the nearshore region are still poorly described. This study characterizes the wave climate in the central Beaufort Sea coast from 1979 to 2019 by utilizing a wave hindcast model that uses ERA5 winds, waves, and ice concentrations as input. The spectral wave model SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore) is calibrated and validated based on more than 10 000 in situ time point measurements collected over a 13-year time period across the region, with friction variations and empirical coefficients for newly implemented empirical ice formulations for the open-water and shoulder seasons. Model results and trends are analyzed over the 41-year time period using the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test, including an estimate of Sen's slope. The model results show that the reduction in sea ice concentration correlates strongly with increases in average and extreme wave conditions. In particular, the open-water season extended by ∼96 d over the 41-year time period (∼2.4 d yr−1), resulting in a 5-fold increase in the yearly cumulative wave power. Moreover, the open-water season extends later into the year, resulting in relatively more open-water conditions during fall storms with high wind speeds. The later freeze-up results in an increase in the annual offshore median wave heights of 1 % yr−1 and an increase in the average number of rough wave days (defined as days when maximum wave heights exceed 2.5 m) from 1.5 in 1979 to 13.1 d in 2019. Trends in the nearshore areas deviate from the patterns offshore. Model results indicate a saturation limit for high wave heights in the shallow areas of Foggy Island Bay. Similar patterns are found for yearly cumulative wave power. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
K. Nederhoff L. Erikson A. Engelstad P. Bieniek J. Kasper |
author_facet |
K. Nederhoff L. Erikson A. Engelstad P. Bieniek J. Kasper |
author_sort |
K. Nederhoff |
title |
The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast |
title_short |
The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast |
title_full |
The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast |
title_fullStr |
The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast |
title_full_unstemmed |
The effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along Alaska's central Beaufort Sea coast |
title_sort |
effect of changing sea ice on wave climate trends along alaska's central beaufort sea coast |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1609/2022/tc-16-1609-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/article/2e049baa9d9f442a82c35635d9613697 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-109.085,-109.085,59.534,59.534) ENVELOPE(-59.828,-59.828,-63.497,-63.497) |
geographic |
Arctic Island Bay Kendall |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Island Bay Kendall |
genre |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Sea ice The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Sea ice The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 16, Pp 1609-1629 (2022) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1609/2022/tc-16-1609-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/article/2e049baa9d9f442a82c35635d9613697 |
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op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1609-2022 |
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The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1609 |
op_container_end_page |
1629 |
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