Warm-air advection, air mass transformation and fog causes rapid ice melt

Details

• Journal Title:
  Geophysical Research Letters
• Personal Author:
  Tjernström, Michael ; Shupe, Matthew D. ; Brooks, Ian M. ; Persson, P. Ola G. ; Prytherch, John ; Salisbury, Dominic J. ; Sedlar, Joseph ; Achtert, Peggy ; Brooks, Barbara J. ; Johnston, Paul E. ; Sotiropoulou, Georgia ; Wolfe, Dan
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; ESRL (Earth System Research Laboratory)
• Description:
  Direct observations during intense warm-air advection over the East Siberian Sea reveal a period of rapid sea-ice melt. A semistationary, high-pressure system north of the Bering Strait forced northward advection of warm, moist air from the continent. Air-mass transformation over melting sea ice formed a strong, surface-based temperature inversion in which dense fog formed. This induced a positive net longwave radiation at the surface while reducing net solar radiation only marginally; the inversion also resulted in downward turbulent heat flux. The sum of these processes enhanced the surface energy flux by an average of similar to 15Wm(-2) for a week. Satellite images before and after the episode show sea-ice concentrations decreasing from > 90% to similar to 50% over a large area affected by the air-mass transformation. We argue that this rapid melt was triggered by the increased heat flux from the atmosphere due to the warm-air advection.
• Source:
  Geophysical Research Letters, 42(13), 5594-5602.
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl064373
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8e6e1f274e4c1222d427967e4efb185075ed917d5684fd92d7014aacd5cb5c36d9ecacbe6a0610d8dbcac0f5a51570dd1ba7dbba871ff6072d7e2e8850e6d9b9
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/22360/noaa_22360_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.52 MB ]