Atmospheric feedback explains disparate climate response to regional Arctic sea-ice loss

• Published in: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
• Main Authors: Levine, Xavier, Cvijanovic, Ivana, Ortega Montilla, Pablo, Donat, Markus, Tourigny, Etienne
• Other Authors: Barcelona Supercomputing Center
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Research 2021
• Subjects: Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida; Climatic changes; Sea ice > Arctic regions; Global warming; Arctic sea-ice loss; Climate change; Canvis climàtics; Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2117/345676; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-021-00183-w

Arctic sea-ice loss is a consequence of anthropogenic global warming and can itself be a driver of climate change in the Arctic and at lower latitudes, with sea-ice minima likely favoring extreme events over Europe and North America. Yet the role that the sea-ice plays in ongoing climate change remains uncertain, partly due to a limited understanding of whether and how the exact geographical distribution of sea-ice loss impacts climate. Here we demonstrate that the climate response to sea-ice loss can vary widely depending on the pattern of sea-ice change, and show that this is due to the presence of an atmospheric feedback mechanism that amplifies the local and remote signals when broader scale sea-ice loss occurs. Our study thus highlights the need to better constrain the spatial pattern of future sea-ice when assessing its impacts on the climate in the Arctic and beyond. X.J.L. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2016-754433 and from the H2020 project APPLICATE (Grant 727862). I.C. was supported by Generalitat de Catalunya (Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement) through Beatriu de Pinós 2017 programme. M.G.D. and P.O. are grateful for funding by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, respectively, for the Grant references RYC-2017-22964 and RYC-2017-22772. E.T. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 748750 (SPFireSD project). Experiments were completed on the Marenostrum IV supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), and support was provided by BSC’s Computational Earth Sciences (CES) department. Peer Reviewed Postprint (published version)