Abstract
In this study, we applied the 1988–2017 monthly average sea ice concentration data from the Met Office Hadley Centre and the 1988–2017 monthly average reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy (NCEP/DOE) Reanalysis II to analyze the relationship between the winter precipitation in the Barents and Kara Seas (BKS) and the previous autumn eastern Siberian Sea ice anomalies. Through the correlation analysis, we found that the correlation between eastern Siberian Sea ice and the BKS winter precipitation was strongest in September and weakest in November. The results indicated that, when the eastern Siberian Sea ice extent decreased in September–October, a significant positive geopotential height anomaly would occur in the coming winter (December–February) in the Norwegian–Barents region. This result in turn caused anomalies in the northward meridional wind. Consequently, the anomalous water vapor from the mid-latitude Atlantic to the Arctic passed through the Greenland Sea before finally reaching the BKS. The meridional wind also caused the temperature in said seas to increase and the BKS ice to melt, leading to an increase of winter precipitation. We also found that the increase of the Siberian high (SH) in winter was related to the decrease of autumn East Siberian Sea ice extent and the increase of the winter BKS precipitation anomaly. Further research still needs to be refined for this issue in future studies.
Highlights
As one of the most important and fastest-changing regions of the global climate system, sea ice plays a vital role in regulating weather conditions in the region’s oceans and the world [1]
Sea ice extent was defined as the sum area of the grid points, where the sea ice concentration was greater than 15%
Using the monthly Global Precipitation Climatology (GPC) precipitation data, the winter (December–February) precipitation anomalies were calculated in the Barents–Kara Shelf Sea (BKS) region (20◦ E–60◦ E, 72◦ N–84◦ N) from 1988 to 2017
Summary
As one of the most important and fastest-changing regions of the global climate system, sea ice plays a vital role in regulating weather conditions in the region’s oceans and the world [1]. Sea ice has been melting rapidly over the past few decades [2]. The authors of many previous studies have linked the main modes of atmospheric circulation in the northern hemisphere to changes in arctic sea ice [5,6,7]. Rigor et al believed that the positive phase of the Arctic oscillation (AO) caused an abnormal decrease in Arctic Ocean sea ice extent in summers. Ogi et al posited that the recent anomalous changes in said ice in September are more closely related to the anticyclone in northern Eurasia in winter and that the relationship between the winter phase AO mode and the summer sea ice was weak [8]. Greenland Sea ice anomalies can cause atmospheric circulation anomalies in the northern hemisphere.
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