The Impact of Sea-Ice Loss on Arctic Climate Feedbacks and Their Role for Arctic Amplification

Details

• Journal Title:
  Geophysical Research Letters
• Personal Author:
  Jenkins, Matthew ; Dai, Aiguo
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CPO (Climate Program Office)
• Description:
  Sea-ice loss and radiative feedbacks have been proposed to explain Arctic amplification (AA)—the enhanced Arctic warming under increased greenhouse gases, but their relationship is unclear. By analyzing coupled CESM1 simulations with 1%/year CO2 increases, we show that without large sea-ice loss and AA, the lapse rate, Planck, and surface albedo feedbacks are greatly reduced, while the positive water vapor feedback changes little. The positive Arctic lapse rate feedback, which results from enhanced surface warming rather than the high stability of Arctic air, and changes in atmospheric energy transport across the Arctic Circle are a result, not a cause, of AA; while the water vapor feedback also plays a minor role. Instead, AA results from enhanced winter oceanic heating associated with sea-ice loss that is aided by a positive surface albedo feedback in summer and positive cloud feedback in winter.
• Source:
  Geophysical Research Letters 48(15): e2021GL094599
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094599
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA18OAR4310425
• Place as Subject:
  Arctic regions
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/44717/noaa_44717_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.30 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:c9f44dc4efbde7a106bcf6976cbbd08c7c5a92dae1909d4c41f8d49b2b5a5568