The Balance of Ice, Waves, and Winds in the Arctic Autumn

Thomson, Jim; Ackley, Stephen F.; Shen, Hayley H.; Rogers, W. E.

doi:10.1029/2017eo066029

Cited by 15 publications

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“…A remnant tongue of ice persisted in the Beaufort Sea throughout much of summer 2015, which created a region of cooler sea surface temperature in autumn 2015 (Figure a). During this 6‐week research cruise, the ice edge moved 250 nautical miles (463 km) southward from the summer ice minimum in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, reaching the Alaskan coast (Thomson et al, ). The program also observed many multiyear sea ice floes with nine cores drilled on refrozen melt ponds and adjacent hummocks at two different multiyear ice floes: Ice Station 1 (IS #1, Figure b) and Ice Station 5 (IS #5, Figure c).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Isotope Clues to the Formation and Evolution of Refrozen Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice

et al. 2018

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Sea ice is one of the determining parameters of the climate system. The presence of melt ponds on the surface of Arctic sea ice plays a critical role in the mass balance of sea ice. A total of nine cores was collected from multiyear ice refrozen melt ponds and adjacent hummocks during the 2015 Arctic Sea State research cruise. The depth profiles of water isotopes, salinity, and ice texture for these sea ice cores were examined to provide information about the development of refrozen melt ponds and water balance generation processes, which are otherwise difficult to acquire. The presence of meteoric water with low oxygen isotope values as relatively thin layers indicates melt pond water stability and little mixing during formation and refreezing. The hydrochemical characteristics of refrozen melt pond and seawater depth profiles indicate little snowmelt enters the upper ocean during melt pond refreezing. Due to the seasonal characters of deuterium excess for Arctic precipitation, water balance calculations utilizing two isotopic tracers (oxygen isotope and deuterium excess) suggest that besides the melt of snow cover, the precipitation input in the melt season may also play a role in the evolution of melt ponds. The dual‐isotope mixing model developed here may become more valuable in a future scenario of increasing Arctic precipitation. The layers of meteoric origin were found at different depths in the refrozen melt pond ice cores. Surface topography information collected at several core sites was examined for possible explanations of different structures of refrozen melt ponds.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Isotope Clues to the Formation and Evolution of Refrozen Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice

et al. 2018

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“…Here we use both remote sensing and in situ wave data from the Sea State 2015 experiment (Thomson et al, , ), which covered the freeze‐up of the Beaufort Sea over the month of October 2015. We particularly focus on the “Wave Array 3” deployment on 11–13 October that was marked by a strong storm with wind speeds from the east exceeding 15 m/s, as measured from the R/V Sikuliaq, and wave heights up to 4.5 m (as detailed below).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave Attenuation Through an Arctic Marginal Ice Zone on 12 October 2015: 2. Numerical Modeling of Waves and Associated Ice Breakup

et al. 2018

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Many processes that affect ocean surface gravity waves in sea ice give rise to attenuation rates that vary with both wave frequency and amplitude. Here we particularly test the possible effects of basal friction, scattering by ice floes, and dissipation in the ice layer due to dislocations, and ice breakup by the waves. The possible influence of these processes is evaluated in the marginal ice zone of the Beaufort Sea, where extensive wave measurements were performed. The wave data includes in situ measurements and the first kilometer‐scale map of wave heights provided by Sentinel‐1 SAR imagery on 12 October 2015, up to 400 km into the ice. We find that viscous friction at the base of an ice layer gives a dissipation rate that may be too large near the ice edge, where ice is mostly in the form of pancakes. Further into the ice, where larger floes are present, basal friction is not sufficient to account for the observed attenuation. In both regions, the observed narrow directional wave spectra are consistent with a parameterization that gives a weak effect of wave scattering by ice floes. For this particular event, with a dominant wave period around 10 s, we propose that wave attenuation is caused by ice flexure combined with basal friction that is reduced when the ice layer is not continuous. This combination gives realistic wave heights, associated with a 100–200 km wide region over which the ice is broken by waves, as observed in SAR imagery.

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“…The data also showed the importance of strong heat loss to atmosphere through surface turbulent and radiative fluxes in the sea ice formation process, especially in off-ice wind events, and the potential importance of ocean waves to sea ice formation and growth [105,106].…”

Section: Arctic Summer Cloud Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both of these campaigns provided data that increased our understanding of the interactions between the atmospheric circulation and surface turbulent and radiative fluxes in the sea ice freeze-up and melt seasons. Other campaigns have featured buoy measurements of surface turbulent fluxes, such as in the Beaufort Sea [104,106]. A campaign slated for 2019-2020, the multidisciplinary drifting observatory for the study of the Arctic climate (MOSAiC; mosaicobservatory.org), modeled after the SHEBA campaign, will provide year-round measurements in the Eurasian/N.…”

Section: In Situ Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data collected has increased our understanding of the seasonal cycle of surface turbulent and radiative fluxes [10,100] and the influence of these fluxes on sea ice growth, melt, and the transitions between these states [101][102][103][104]. Other field campaigns in the Pacific sector of the Arctic include the SeaState campaign [105,106], which measured meteorological and EC method turbulent fluxes over the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in October and November 2015 during sea ice freeze-up conditions. In the Atlantic sector, EC-derived turbulent fluxes were calculated in the Arctic Ocean Expedition (AOE) campaigns in 1996 [107] and 2001 [108].…”

Section: In Situ Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Increasing Importance of Air-Sea Exchanges in a Thawing Arctic: A Review

et al. 2018

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Forty years ago, climate scientists predicted the Arctic to be one of Earth's most sensitive climate regions and thus extremely vulnerable to increased CO 2 . The rapid and unprecedented changes observed in the Arctic confirm this prediction. Especially significant, observed sea ice loss is altering the exchange of mass, energy, and momentum between the Arctic Ocean and atmosphere.As an important component of air-sea exchange, surface turbulent fluxes are controlled by vertical gradients of temperature and humidity between the surface and atmosphere, wind speed, and surface roughness, indicating that they respond to other forcing mechanisms such as atmospheric advection, ocean mixing, and radiative flux changes. The exchange of energy between the atmosphere and surface via surface turbulent fluxes in turn feeds back on the Arctic surface energy budget, sea ice, clouds, boundary layer temperature and humidity, and atmospheric and oceanic circulations. Understanding and attributing variability and trends in surface turbulent fluxes is important because they influence the magnitude of Arctic climate change, sea ice cover variability, and the atmospheric circulation response to increased CO 2 . This paper reviews current knowledge of Arctic Ocean surface turbulent fluxes and their effects on climate. We conclude that Arctic Ocean surface turbulent fluxes are having an increasingly consequential influence on Arctic climate variability in response to strong regional trends in the air-surface temperature contrast related to the changing character of the Arctic sea ice cover. Arctic Ocean surface turbulent energy exchanges are not smooth and steady but rather irregular and episodic, and consideration of the episodic nature of surface turbulent fluxes is essential for improving Arctic climate projections.

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The Balance of Ice, Waves, and Winds in the Arctic Autumn

Abstract: Although summer sea ice loss in the Arctic is well studied, less is known about how ice comes back in autumn. A new program is changing that.

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Stable Isotope Clues to the Formation and Evolution of Refrozen Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice

Stable Isotope Clues to the Formation and Evolution of Refrozen Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice

Wave Attenuation Through an Arctic Marginal Ice Zone on 12 October 2015: 2. Numerical Modeling of Waves and Associated Ice Breakup

On the Increasing Importance of Air-Sea Exchanges in a Thawing Arctic: A Review

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