Antarctic sea ice multidecadal variability triggered by Southern Annular Mode and deep convection

Morioka, Yushi; Manabe, Syukuro; Zhang, Liping; Delworth, Thomas L.; Cooke, William; Nonaka, Masami; Behera, Swadhin K.

doi:10.1038/s43247-024-01783-z

i

Antarctic sea ice multidecadal variability triggered by Southern Annular Mode and deep convection

2024
By Morioka, Yushi ; Manabe, Syukuro ; Zhang, Liping ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Communications Earth & Environment
Personal Author:

Morioka, Yushi ; Manabe, Syukuro ; Zhang, Liping ; Delworth, Thomas L. ; Cooke, William ; Nonaka, Masami ; Behera, Swadhin K.
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
Description:

Antarctic sea ice exerts great influence on Earth’s climate by controlling the exchange of heat, momentum, freshwater, and gases between the atmosphere and ocean. Antarctic sea ice extent has undergone a multidecadal slight increase followed by a substantial decline since 2016. Here we utilize a 300-yr sea ice data assimilation reconstruction and two NOAA/GFDL and five CMIP6 model simulations to demonstrate a multidecadal variability of Antarctic sea ice extent. Stronger westerlies associated with the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) enhance the upwelling of warm and saline water from the subsurface ocean. The consequent salinity increase weakens the upper-ocean stratification, induces deep convection, and in turn brings more subsurface warm and saline water to the surface. This salinity-convection feedback triggered by the SAM provides favorable conditions for multidecadal sea ice decrease. Processes acting in reverse are found to cause sea ice increase, although it evolves slower than sea ice decrease.
Source:

Communications Earth & Environment, 5(1)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01783-z
ISSN:

2662-4435
Format:

pdf
Publisher:

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Document Type:

Journal Article
License:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rights Information:

CC BY-NC-ND
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:16a4bbb967e95f4b185d70eb9091166803cee6edb9ef919ebf262f705a5042d7de490babc24db55e3ff4457382b5c237aaa62fc650d919da697cf764d012c535
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/68806/noaa_68806_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 2.44 MB ]

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