Emerging trends in the sea state of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas

• Published in: Ocean Modelling
• Main Authors: Thomson, Jim, Fan, Yalin, Stammerjohn, Sharon, Stopa, Justin, Rogers, W. Erick, Girard-Ardhuin, Fanny, Ardhuin, Fabrice, Shen, Hayley, Perrie, Will, Shen, Hui, Ackley, Steve, Babanin, Alex, Liu, Qingxiang, Guest, Peter, Maksym, Ted, Wadhams, Peter, Fairall, Chris, Persson, Ola, Doble, Martin, Graber, Hans, Lund, Bjoern, Squire, Vernon, Gemmrich, Johannes, Lehner, Susanne, Holt, Benjamin, Meylan, Mike, Brozena, John, Bidlot, Jean-Raymond
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Ocean Modelling 2016
• Subjects: Sea ice; Arctic Ocean; Ocean surface waves; Arctic; Harper; Doble; Chukchi; ice pack; National Snow and Ice Data Center; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/9165; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2016.02.009

The sea state of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas is controlled by the wind forcing and the amount of ice-free water available to generate surface waves. Clear trends in the annual duration of the open water season and in the extent of the seasonal sea ice minimum suggest that the sea state should be increasing, independent of changes in the wind forcing. Wave model hindcasts from four selected years spanning recent conditions are consistent with this expectation. In particular, larger waves are more common in years with less summer sea ice and/or a longer open water season, and peak wave periods are generally longer. The increase in wave energy may affect both the coastal zones and the remaining summer ice pack, as well as delay the autumn ice-edge advance. However, trends in the amount of wave energy impinging on the ice-edge are inconclusive, and the associated processes, especially in the autumn period of new ice formation, have yet to be well-described by in situ observations. There is an implicit trend and evidence for increasing wave energy along the coast of northern Alaska, and this coastal signal is corroborated by satellite altimeter estimates of wave energy. This work relies heavily on publicly available datasets, including those from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Code 322, “Arctic and Global Prediction”, directed by Drs. Martin Jeffries and Scott Harper. (Grant numbers and Principal Investigators are: Ackley, N000141310435; Babanin, N000141310278; Doble, N000141310290; Fairall, N0001413IP20046; Gemmrich, N000141310280; Girard-Ardhuin and Ardhuin, N000141612376; Graber, N000141310288; Guest, N0001413WX20830; Holt, N0001413IP20050; Lehner, N000141310303; Maksym, N000141310446; Perrie, N00014-15-1-2611; Rogers, N0001413WX20825; Shen, N000141310294; Squire, N000141310279; Stammerjohn, N000141310434; Thomson, N000141310284; Wadhams, N000141310289.) ...