Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science 356 (2017): 285-291, doi:10.1126/science.aai8204.
Description:
Arctic sea-ice loss is a leading indicator of climate change and can be attributed, in large
part, to atmospheric forcing. Here we show that recent ice reductions, weakening of the
halocline, and shoaling of intermediate-depth Atlantic Water layer in the eastern Eurasian
Basin have increased winter ventilation in the ocean interior, making this region
structurally similar to that of the western Eurasian Basin. The associated enhanced
release of oceanic heat has reduced winter sea-ice formation at a rate now comparable to
losses from atmospheric thermodynamic forcing, thus explaining the recent reduction in
sea-ice cover in the eastern Eurasian Basin. This encroaching “atlantification” of the
Eurasian Basin represents an essential step toward a new Arctic climate state, with a
substantially greater role for Atlantic inflows.
Description:
This study was supported by NSF grants #1203473 and #1249133
(AP, IP, MA, RR, VI), NOAA grant # NA15OAR4310155 (AP, IP, MA, RR, TB, VI)
and by the A-TWAIN project, funded by the Arctic Ocean program at the FRAM-High
North Research Centre for Climate and the Environment.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
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