The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503, doi:10.1029/2011GL050691. Polynyas, regions of...
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/5123 2023-05-15T15:40:16+02:00 The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High Moore, G. W. K. Pickart, Robert S. 2012-03-15 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5123 en_US eng American Geophysical Union https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050691 Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5123 doi:10.1029/2011GL050691 Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503 doi:10.1029/2011GL050691 Chukchi Sea Polynya Article 2012 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050691 2022-05-28T22:58:34Z Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503, doi:10.1029/2011GL050691. Polynyas, regions of reduced sea ice concentration relative to their surroundings, are important features of the polar climate system in which enhanced fluxes of heat, moisture, and momentum can occur between the atmosphere and ocean. As such, they play a significant role in many atmospheric, oceanographic and biological processes. There are concerns that in a warming climate, in which there is a trend towards a reduction in sea ice cover, that the location, size and duration of many polynyas may change resulting in climatological and ecological impacts. In this paper, we identify an early summer manifestation of the Wrangel Island polynya that forms in the western Chuckchi Sea. We show that over the past 30 years there has been an increased frequency of occurrence as well as a doubling in the size of the polynya. The polynya is shown to form when there is an enhanced easterly flow over the Chukchi Sea that is associated with an anomalously intense Beaufort Sea High (BSH), a closed anti-cyclonic atmospheric circulation that forms over the Beaufort Sea. We also show that there has been a concomitant trend towards a more intense BSH over the same time period and we propose that this trend is responsible for the observed changes in the Wrangel Island polynya. Given its large and increasing size, the early summer polynya may also play an important and unaccounted role in the physical and biological oceanography of the western Chukchi Sea. GWKM was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. RSP was supported by the NOAA project NA08-OAR4320895. 2012-09-15 Article in Journal/Newspaper Beaufort Sea Chukchi Chukchi Sea Sea ice Wrangel Island Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Canada Chukchi Sea Wrangel Island ENVELOPE(-179.385,-179.385,71.244,71.244) Geophysical Research Letters 39 5 n/a n/a |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
Chukchi Sea Polynya |
spellingShingle |
Chukchi Sea Polynya Moore, G. W. K. Pickart, Robert S. The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High |
topic_facet |
Chukchi Sea Polynya |
description |
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503, doi:10.1029/2011GL050691. Polynyas, regions of reduced sea ice concentration relative to their surroundings, are important features of the polar climate system in which enhanced fluxes of heat, moisture, and momentum can occur between the atmosphere and ocean. As such, they play a significant role in many atmospheric, oceanographic and biological processes. There are concerns that in a warming climate, in which there is a trend towards a reduction in sea ice cover, that the location, size and duration of many polynyas may change resulting in climatological and ecological impacts. In this paper, we identify an early summer manifestation of the Wrangel Island polynya that forms in the western Chuckchi Sea. We show that over the past 30 years there has been an increased frequency of occurrence as well as a doubling in the size of the polynya. The polynya is shown to form when there is an enhanced easterly flow over the Chukchi Sea that is associated with an anomalously intense Beaufort Sea High (BSH), a closed anti-cyclonic atmospheric circulation that forms over the Beaufort Sea. We also show that there has been a concomitant trend towards a more intense BSH over the same time period and we propose that this trend is responsible for the observed changes in the Wrangel Island polynya. Given its large and increasing size, the early summer polynya may also play an important and unaccounted role in the physical and biological oceanography of the western Chukchi Sea. GWKM was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. RSP was supported by the NOAA project NA08-OAR4320895. 2012-09-15 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Moore, G. W. K. Pickart, Robert S. |
author_facet |
Moore, G. W. K. Pickart, Robert S. |
author_sort |
Moore, G. W. K. |
title |
The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High |
title_short |
The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High |
title_full |
The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High |
title_fullStr |
The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Wrangel Island Polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the Beaufort Sea High |
title_sort |
wrangel island polynya in early summer : trends and relationships to other polynyas and the beaufort sea high |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5123 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-179.385,-179.385,71.244,71.244) |
geographic |
Canada Chukchi Sea Wrangel Island |
geographic_facet |
Canada Chukchi Sea Wrangel Island |
genre |
Beaufort Sea Chukchi Chukchi Sea Sea ice Wrangel Island |
genre_facet |
Beaufort Sea Chukchi Chukchi Sea Sea ice Wrangel Island |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503 doi:10.1029/2011GL050691 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050691 Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L05503 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5123 doi:10.1029/2011GL050691 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050691 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
n/a |
op_container_end_page |
n/a |
_version_ |
1766372442806157312 |