The anomalous sea‐ice extent in Hudson bay, Baffin bay and the Labrador sea during three simultaneous NAO and ENSO episodes

Abstract

Abstract The nature of the sea‐ice extent in Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea associated with the three strong simultaneous NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) and ENSO (El Nino‐Southern Oscillation) episodes of 1972/73, 1982/83 and 1991/92 is investigated. During the first year of the 1972/73 episode, when positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies occurred in the eastern tropical Pacific from January 1972 to February 1973 and the Icelandic Low substantially deepened in winter 1973, there were heavy ice conditions (large positive sea‐ice extent anomalies) in the study region and negative SST anomalies in the Labrador Sea and northwestern North Atlantic Ocean, north of 50°N. The anomalous ice conditions are attributed to the coincident large‐scale negative surface air temperature (SAT) and positive northerly wind anomalies in the region. Ten years later, during 1982/83, the strongest ENSO event of the past century occurred, and extremely large positive sea‐ice extent anomalies persisted in t...