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Wu, Yue 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5352-5471, Stevens, David P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7283-4405, Renfrew, Ian A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9379-8215 and Zhai, Xiaoming
(2021)
The response of the Nordic Seas to wintertime sea-ice retreat.
Journal of Climate, 34 (15).
6041–6056.
ISSN 0894-8755
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Abstract
The ocean response to wintertime sea ice retreat is investigated in the coupled climate model HiGEM. We focus on the marginal ice zone and adjacent waters of the Nordic seas, where the air-sea temperature difference can be large during periods of off-ice winds promoting high heat flux events. Both control and transient climate model ensembles are examined, which allows us to isolate the ocean response due to sea ice retreat from the response due to climate change. As the wintertime sea ice edge retreats toward the Greenland coastline, it exposes waters that were previously covered by ice, which enhances turbulent heat loss and mechanical mixing, leading to a greater loss of buoyancy and deeper vertical mixing in this location. However, under global warming, the buoyancy loss is inhibited as the atmosphere warms more rapidly than the ocean, which reduces the air-sea temperature difference. This occurs most prominently farther away from the retreating ice edge, over the Greenland Sea Gyre. Over the gyre the upper ocean also warms significantly, resulting in a more stratified water column and, as a consequence, a reduction in the depth of convective mixing. In contrast, closer to the coast the effect of global warming is overshadowed by the effect of the sea ice retreat, leading to significant changes in ocean temperature and salinity in the vicinity of the marginal ice zone.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | atmosphere-ocean interaction,ocean circulation,sea ice,atmospheric science,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1902 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Mathematics Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluid and Solid Mechanics |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 20 May 2021 00:08 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Apr 2024 03:02 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/80053 |
| DOI: | 10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0932.1 |
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