Modelling investigation of interaction between Arctic sea ice and storms: insights from case studies and climatological hindcast simulations

• Main Author: Semenov, Alexander
• Other Authors: Zhang, Xiangdong, Bhatt, Uma, Hutchings, Jennifer, Mölders, Nicole
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: sea ice; Arctic Ocean; cyclones; storms; windstorms; ocean-atmosphere interaction; sea ice drift; Arctic; Fairbanks; Laptev Sea; Pacific; Archipelago; Atlantic Arctic; Atlantic-Arctic; Canadian Archipelago; Chukchi; Kara-Laptev; laptev; Pacific Arctic; Sea ice; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10538

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019 The goal of this study is to improve understanding of atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean interactions in the context of Arctic storm activities. The reduction of Arctic sea ice extent, increase in ocean water temperatures, and changes of atmospheric circulation have been manifested in the Arctic Ocean along with the large surface air temperature increase during recent decades. All of these changes may change the way in which atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean interact, which may in turn feedback to Arctic surface air warming. To achieve the goal, we employed an integrative approach including analysis of modeling simulation results and conducting specifically designed model sensitivity experiments. The novelty of this study is linking synoptic scale storms to large-scale changes in sea ice and atmospheric circulation. The models were used in this study range from the regional fully coupled Arctic climate model HIRHAM-NAOSIM to the ocean-sea ice component model of the Community Earth System Model CESM and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Analysis of HIRHAM-NAOSIM simulation outputs shows regionally dependent variability of storm count with a higher number of storms over the Atlantic side than over the Pacific side. High-resolution simulations also reproduce higher number of storms than lower resolution reanalysis dataset. This is because the high-resolution model may capture more shallow and small size storms. As an integrated consequence, the composite analysis shows that more numerous intense storms produce low-pressure systems centered over the Barents-Kara-Laptev seas and the Chukchi-East Siberian seas, leading to anomalous cyclonic circulation over the Atlantic Arctic Ocean and Pacific Arctic Ocean. Correspondingly, anomalous sea ice transport occurs, enhancing sea ice outflow out of the Barents-Kara-Laptev sea ice and weakening sea ice inflow into the Chukchi-Beaufort seas from the thick ice area north of the Canadian Archipelago. This ...