[1] Coastal polynyas are areas in an ice-covered ocean where the ice cover is exported, mostly by off-shore winds. The resulting reduction of sea ice enables an enhanced ocean-atmosphere heat transfer. Once the water temperatures are at the freezing point, further heat loss induces sea ice production. The heat exchange and ice production in coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea is addressed using the Finite-Element Sea-ice Ocean Model, a primitive-equation, hydrostatic ocean circulation model coupled with a dynamic-thermodynamic sea-ice model, which allows to quantify the amount of heat associated with cooling of the water column. Three important polynya regions are identified: at Brunt Ice Shelf, at Ronne Ice Shelf and along the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula. Multiyear winter means (May-September 1990 give an upward heat flux to the atmosphere of 311 W/m 2 in the Brunt polynyas, 511 W/m 2 in Ronne Polynya and 364 W/m 2 in the Antarctic Peninsula polynyas, whereof 57 W/m 2 , 49 W/m 2 and 48 W/m 2 , respectively, are supplied as oceanic heat flux from deeper layers. The mean winter sea ice production is 7.2 cm/d in the Brunt polynyas corresponding to an ice volume of 1.3 10 10 m 3 /winter, 13.2 cm/d at Ronne polynya (4.4 10 10 m 3 /winter), and 9.2 cm/d in the Antarctic Peninsula polynyas (2.1 10 10 m 3 /winter). The heat flux to the atmosphere inside polynyas is 7 to 9 times higher than the heat flux in the adjacent area; polynya ice production per unit area exceeds adjacent values by a factor of 9 to 14.Citation: Haid, V., and R. Timmermann (2013), Simulated heat flux and sea ice production at coastal polynyas in the southwestern

Multimodel Arctic Ocean “climate response function” experiments are analyzed in order to explore the effects of anomalous wind forcing over the Greenland Sea (GS) on poleward ocean heat transport, Atlantic Water (AW) pathways, and the extent of Arctic sea ice. Particular emphasis is placed on the sensitivity of the AW circulation to anomalously strong or weak GS winds in relation to natural variability, the latter manifested as part of the North Atlantic Oscillation. We find that anomalously strong (weak) GS wind forcing, comparable in strength to a strong positive (negative) North Atlantic Oscillation index, results in an intensification (weakening) of the poleward AW flow, extending from south of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre, through the Nordic Seas, and all the way into the Canadian Basin. Reconstructions made utilizing the calculated climate response functions explain ∼50% of the simulated AW flow variance; this is the proportion of variability that can be explained by GS wind forcing. In the Barents and Kara Seas, there is a clear relationship between the wind‐driven anomalous AW inflow and the sea ice extent. Most of the anomalous AW heat is lost to the atmosphere, and loss of sea ice in the Barents Sea results in even more heat loss to the atmosphere, and thus effective ocean cooling. Release of passive tracers in a subset of the suite of models reveals differences in circulation patterns and shows that the flow of AW in the Arctic Ocean is highly dependent on the wind stress in the Nordic Seas.