Replicating the 1970s' Weddell Polynya using a coupled ocean‐sea ice model with reanalysis surface flux fields

Cheon, Woo Geun; Lee, Sang Ki; Gordon, Arnold L.; Liu, Yanyun; Cho, Chang Bong

doi:10.1002/2015gl064364

Cited by 41 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Wind stress supports for the opening of polynya through Ekman upwelling and triggering the formation of convection cells (Gordon & Huber, ). The resulted upwelling of deep warm water plays an important precondition for the occurrence of a long‐lived and large‐scale open‐ocean polynya on the MR (Cheon et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to understand the formation mechanism of the MR polynya, theoretical and modeling studies has been linked its occurrence to static instability and open-ocean convection (Martinson et al, 1981;Motoi et al, 1987); Taylor column circulation (Alverson & Owens, 1996;Kurtakoti et al, 2018;Muench et al, 2001); cyclonic ocean eddies and atmospheric processes (de Steur et al, 2007;Holland, 2001); strong wind stress (Cheon et al, 2015); interaction between tidal flow, ocean current, and winds (Beckmann et al, 2001); buildup of the oceanic heat reservoir (Dufour et al, 2017); Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (Gordon et al, 2007). Most of these studies suggested that the subsurface warm saline water should reach to the upper ocean for the melting of sea-ice and to form a polynya on the MR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent Reoccurrence of Large Open‐Ocean Polynya on the Maud Rise Seamount

Jena

Ravichandran

Turner

2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Satellite observations have shown that the largest and most prolonged Maud Rise open‐ocean polynya since the 1970s appeared on 14 September 2017 (~9.3 × 103 km2) within the seasonal sea‐ice cover which expanded maximum on 1 December 2017 (~298.1 × 103 km2) and existed for 79 days. Record negative anomalies of sea‐ice concentration were observed in and around the polynya. The occurrence of the polynya was associated with a large cyclonic eddy and negative wind stress curl that facilitated melting of sea‐ice. Concurrently, a region of positive sea level pressure anomalies extended over the entire northern Weddell Sea accompanied by record low negative anomalies (deep depressions) over the southwest Weddell Sea and the Maud Rise. The atmospheric circulation anomalies advected moist‐warm air from the midlatitudes, resulted a record atmospheric warming (~11.5 °C) in the Maud Rise that favored this rare event as one of the largest open‐ocean polynyas.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Reoccurrence of Large Open‐Ocean Polynya on the Maud Rise Seamount

Jena

Ravichandran

Turner

2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…As indicated in Figures c and d, the interior of the ice pack in the Weddell Sea is almost unaffected, in agreement with the earlier reports that the Weddell Polynya of the mid‐1970s has not reemerged since [e.g., Gordon et al ., ; Cheon et al ., ]. More importantly, the seasonality of the Antarctic sea‐ice trend in the Atlantic sector is almost perfectly opposite to that in the East Pacific sector (Figures a and b).…”

Section: Antarctic Sea‐ice Trend In the Atlantic Sectormentioning

confidence: 98%

Wind‐driven ocean dynamics impact on the contrasting sea‐ice trends around West Antarctica

et al. 2017

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Since late 1978, Antarctic sea‐ice extent in the East Pacific has retreated persistently over the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas in warm seasons, but expanded over the Ross and Amundsen Seas in cold seasons, while almost opposite seasonal trends have occurred in the Atlantic over the Weddell Sea. By using a surface‐forced ocean and sea‐ice coupled model, we show that regional wind‐driven ocean dynamics played a key role in driving these trends. In the East Pacific, the strengthening Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerlies in the region enhanced the Ekman upwelling of warm upper Circumpolar Deep Water and increased the northward Ekman transport of cold Antarctic surface water. The associated surface ocean warming south of 68°S and the cooling north of 68°S directly contributed to the retreat of sea‐ice in warm seasons and the expansion in cold seasons, respectively. In the Atlantic, the poleward shifting SH westerlies in the region strengthened the northern branch of the Weddell Gyre, which in turn increased the meridional thermal gradient across it as constrained by the thermal wind balance. Ocean heat budget analysis further suggests that the strengthened northern branch of the Weddell Gyre acted as a barrier against the poleward ocean heat transport, and thus produced anomalous heat divergence within the Weddell Gyre and anomalous heat convergence north of the gyre. The associated cooling within the Weddell Gyre and the warming north of the gyre contributed to the expansion of sea‐ice in warm seasons and the retreat in cold seasons, respectively.

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“…During the start of the warming phase of each of the simulated D‐O cycles, the initial instability is coincident with the winter appearance of a large open ocean area measuring more than 10 6 km 2 that is entirely surrounded by sea ice (Figure c). This is approximately 3 times the area of the massive modern‐day Weddell Sea polynya through the period from 1974 to 1976 [ Carsey , ; Martinson et al ., ; Gordon , ; Cheon et al ., ]. In this simulation, deep water formation is able to penetrate to depths between 1500 and 2000 m during winter in the polynya region while the North Atlantic region to the south remains sea ice covered.…”

Section: Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermohaline instability and the formation of glacial North Atlantic super polynyas at the onset of Dansgaard‐Oeschger warming events

Vettoretti

Peltier

2016

Geophysical Research Letters

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Late Quaternary rapid warming events inferred on the basis of oxygen isotopic data from Greenland ice cores are the most prominent characteristic of millennial‐scale Dansgaard‐Oeschger oscillations. In a coupled climate model simulation which has accurately reproduced this oscillatory behavior for the first time, we show that formation of a glacial North Atlantic super polynya characterizes the initial stage of transition from cold stadial to warm interstadial conditions. The winter polynya forms within the otherwise sea ice‐covered North Atlantic as a consequence of the onset of a thermohaline convective instability beneath an extensive stadial sea ice lid. Early in the stadial period, the tendency for thermal convective instability of an extensive warm pool beneath the sea ice lid is strongly inhibited by a stabilizing vertical salinity gradient, which gradually diminishes until a thermohaline convective instability occurs that leads to polynya formation and the rapid retreat of North Atlantic sea ice cover.

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Replicating the 1970s' Weddell Polynya using a coupled ocean‐sea ice model with reanalysis surface flux fields

Cited by 41 publications

References 29 publications

Recent Reoccurrence of Large Open‐Ocean Polynya on the Maud Rise Seamount

Recent Reoccurrence of Large Open‐Ocean Polynya on the Maud Rise Seamount

Wind‐driven ocean dynamics impact on the contrasting sea‐ice trends around West Antarctica

Thermohaline instability and the formation of glacial North Atlantic super polynyas at the onset of Dansgaard‐Oeschger warming events

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