Relationship of Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemispheric 500 hPa Polar vortices

Using the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis monthly 500 hPa height data on a 2.5 latitude-longitude grid and 1°×1° sea ice data,the polar vortex area,intensity index and arctic sea ice area index are calculated respectively,and the meridional distribution,period variation and the abrupts in the long range trend are analyzed to study their relationship.The results show that the meridional distribution of sea ice and polar vortex h-ave distinctive difference,the relative positions of them are different in the eastern and western hemispheres,and exept they have periods of 4 months,quasi half year,quasi year,4-5 years and 10 years commonly,and each of them has its own respective variation as well.The sea ice area is decreasing apparently since 1980's,so is the polar vortex area,but their abrupt changge time are different totally.The area of sea ice and polar vortex has prominent positive correlation,but the relationship of sea ice intensity,polar vortex intensity,polar vortex area is complicated.     

The role of Pacific water in the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007

A model study is conducted to examine the role of Pacific water in the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007. The model generally agrees with the observations in showing considerable seasonal and interannual variability of the Pacific water inflow at Bering Strait in response to changes in atmospheric circulation. During summer 2007 anomalously strong southerly winds over the PaCific sector of the Arctic Ocean strengthen the ocean circulation and bring more Pacific water into the Arctic than the recent （2000-2006） average. The simulated summer （3 months ） 2007 mean Pacific water inflow at Bering Strait is 1.2 Sv, which is the highest in the past three decades of the simulation and is 20% higher than the recent average. Particularly, the Pacific water inflow in September 2007 is about 0.5 Sv or 50% above the 2000-2006 average. The strengthened warm Pacific water inflow carries an additional 1.0 x 1020 Joules of heat into the Arctic, enough to melt an additional 0.5 m of ice over the whole Chukchi Sea. In the model the extra summer oceanic heat brought in by the Pacific water mainly stays in the Chukchi and Beaufort region, contributing to the warming of surface waters in that region. The heat is in constant contact with the ice cover in the region in July through September. Thus the Pacific water plays a role in ice melting in the Chukchi and Beaufort region all summer long in 2007, likely contributing to up to O. 5 m per month additional ice melting in some area of that region.     

The seasonal foot printing mechanism of spring Arctic sea ice in the Bergen climate models

The influence of spring Arctic sea ice variability on the Pacific Decadal Oscillation(PDO) like sea surface temperature(SST) variability is established and investigated using an Atmosphere Ocean General Circulation Model(AOGCM) of the Bergen Climate Model version 2(BCM2). The spring Arctic sea ice variability affects the mid-latitudes and tropics through the propagation of the anomalous Eliassen-Palm(E-P) flux from the polar region to mid- and low-latitudes during boreal spring. The pathway includes anomalous upward wave activity, which propagates to the high troposphere from near the surface of the polar region, turns southward between 500 h Pa and 200 h Pa and extends downward between 50°N and 70°N, influencing the near surface atmospheric circulation. The alteration of the near surface atmospheric circulation then causes anomalous surface ocean circulation. These circulation changes consequently leads to the SST anomalies in the North Pacific which may persist until the following summer, named seasonal "foot printing" mechanism(SFPM).     

Spatial-temporal characters of Antarctic sea ice variation

1　Introduction Nowadaysglobalclimatechangehasbeenanimportantissueintheworld.Antarctic areaisjustthekeyandsensitiveregion,fromwhichscientistsaretryingtheirbesttofind theomenofglobalclimatechange.Andfortherevolvingglobalatmosphere,PolarRegions arecoldsource.TheoceanicandatmosphericconditionofPolarRegionsisimportantto globalatmosphericcirculationandclimatechange.Antarcticareaisoneofthecoldsources ofglobalearth atmospheresystem,whileequatorialareaisitsmainheatsource(seeZhou andLuetal.1996).…     

Measurements of sea ice thickness and its subice morphology analysis using ice-penetration radar in the Arctic Ocean

1　IntroductionSeaice ,asanimportantcomponentoftheArcticclimatesystem ,hasdrawnsignifi cantscientificinterest.Seaicethicknessanditsmorphologyhavedramaticimpactsono cean atmosphere iceinteractions(Wadhams 1 994;Barryetal.1 993 ;Dickson 1 999;PadhamsandNorman 2 0 0 0 ) ,whichdirectlyaffecttheexchangeprocessandspeedofheatandmassbetweentheoceanandtheatmosphere ,dominatethephysicalmechanicsfea turesofseaice ,andaffecttheseaicemovement&deformationaswellasicefreezing&meltingprocess(Hollandetal.1 99…     

Ice concentration assimilation in a regional ice-ocean cou- pled model and its application in sea ice forecasting

A reasonable initial state of ice concentration is essential for accurate short-term forecasts of sea ice using ice-ocean coupled models. In this study, sea ice concentration data are assimilated into an operational ice forecast system based on a com- bined optimal interpolation and nudging scheme. The scheme produces a modeled sea ice concentration at every time step, based on the difference between observational and forecast data and on the ratio of observational error to modeled error. The impact and the effectiveness of data assimilation are investigated. Significant improvements to predictions of sea ice extent were obtained through the assimilation of ice concentration, and minor improvements through the adjustment of the upper ocean properties. The assimilation of ice thickness data did not significantly improve predictions. Forecast experiments show that the forecast accuracy is higher in summer, and that the errors on five-day forecasts occur mainly around the marginal ice zone.     

Winter climate change and sea ice-atmosphere interaction at high northern latitudes in ERA40 dataset

1 IntroductionGreen house gases, such as CO2,CH4, N2O and so on are released to the atmosphereconstantly by human activities. These gases insert positive radiative forcing to the climate.Meanwhile, aerosol, which are also released by human activities, ins…     

Winter climate change and sea high northern latitudes in ERA40 ice-atmosphere interaction at dataset

Based on the reanalysis dataset ERA40 of European Center of Medium Range Weather Forcast （ECMWF）, winter climate change and characteristics of sea ice-atmosphere interaction at high northern latitudes for recent several tens of years are analyzed. Superposed upon the background of global warming, the amplitude of temperature increase in winter at high northern latitudes is bigger and it exhibits different features in different regions. From the end of 1970 s, the Greenland Sea, the Barents Sea and most part of Euro-Asian continent and North American continent are getting warmer, whereas the Labrador Sea, the Greenland and the area around the Bering Strait are getting colder. Meanwhile, the sea level pressure in the central part of the northern polar region and the place where the climatic Icelandic low exist decreases, but in places farther southward it increases. Since the 1970 s, the sensible heat flux and latent heat flux sent to the atmosphere from the Greenland Sea and the Barents Sea has increased, this is mainly due to the reduction of sea ice concentration and the weakening of insulator and shield effect of the solid ice accordingly caused by the increase of air temperature. In sea ice free area of the Norwegian Sea, the sensible heat flux and latent heat flux sent to the atmosphere has reduced due to decrease of temperature and humidity differences between the air and the sea surface caused by increase of air temperature and humidity. In the Labrador Sea, due to decrease of air temperature and humidity and increase of temperature and humidity differences between the air and the sea surface accordingly, the sea gives more sensible heat flux and latent heat flux to the air. This will lead to the growth of sea ice extent there. The features of linear regression of sea level pressure, sea ice concentration and sum of sensible heat flux and latent heat flux toward time series of the leading mode of EOF expansion of surface air temperature are close to those of their own EOF expansion for the leading mode, respectively. This shows that these variables share similar features of variation with time linearly.     

Fabric and crystal characteristics of Bohai and Arctic sea ice

1　ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＢｏｈａｉｏｎｅ ｙｅａｒｉｃｅａｎｄＡｎｔａｒｃｔｉｃｏｎｅｈａｖｅｔｈｅｓｉｍｉｌａｒｓｕｒｆａｃｅ ｆｅａｔｕｒｅｓａｎｄｃｏｒｒｅ ｓｐｏｎｄｉｎｇｆａｂｒｉｃａｎｄｃｒｙｓｔａｌｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｉｓｔｉｃｓ (Ａｌｌｉｓｏｎ 1 997;Ｌｉｅｔａｌ.1 997;Ｑｉｎ 1 991 ) .ＤｕｒｉｎｇｔｈｅＣｈｉｎａＦｉｒｓｔＡｒｃｔｉｃＥｘｐｅｄｉｔｉｏｎ ,ｔｈｅｒｅｓｕｌｔｓｉｎｔｈｅｓｔｕｄｙｏｆｏｎｅ ｙｅａｒｉｃｅｆｒｏｍＢｏｈａｉａｎｄＡｎｔａｒｃｔｉｃｗｅｒｅｕｓｅｄｆｏ…     

Progress in application of MODIS for remote sensing in Polar Regions

The remote sensing technique is widely used in Polar Regions, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiomete (MODIS) is one of the most important satellite sensors in the domain of remote sensing. In this article, MODIS sensor, including the information of its satellites, its system constitutes, its hardware characteristic, its large spectra and usual applications are briefly introduced first. Then, there is a particular introduction of MODIS's use in Polar Regions, which refers to the polar physiognomy, polar atmosphere and polar ocean, with citing many examples. At last, views about the development of MODIS and its series sensors in the future, including the improved applications in Polar Regions are given.     

Relationship between Antarctic sea ice and the climate in summer of China

The variations of sea ice are different in different regions in Antarctica, thus have different impacts on local atmospheric circulation and global climatic system. The relationships between the sea ice in Ross Sea and Weddell Sea regions and the synoptic climate in summer of China are investigated in this paper via diagnostic analysis methods by using global sea ice concentration gridded data covering Jan. 1968 through Dec. 2002 obtained from Hadley Center, combined with Geopotential Height on 500hPa and 100hPa over North Hemisphere and monthly precipitation and air temperatures data covering the corresponding period over 160 meteorological stations in China obtained from CMA （ China Meteorological Administration）. Results disclose that both these two regions are of indicative meanings to the climate in summer of China. The Ross Sea Region is the key sea ice region to the precipitation in Northeast China in summer. More sea ice in this region in September will result in less precipitation in Northeast China in the following June. Weddell Sea Region is the key sea ice region to the air temperature in Northeast China in summer. More sea ice in this region in September will contribute to lower air temperature in Northeast China in the following June.     

Interaction between sea ice/iceberg and ship structures: A review

For ship structural design and good maneuverability in an ice-covered sea, the local and global load of ice cover on ships should be well understood. This paper reviews the extensive work done on ice loads on ships, including： （a） Ice pressure and local load determination based on field and model tests; （b） Global ice loads on ships from full-scale field observations, model tests and numerical models under different ice conditions （level ice and pack ice） and ship operations （maneuvering and mooring）. Spe- cial attention is paid to the discrete element simulation of global ice loads on ships; and （c） Analytical solutions and numerical models of impact loads of icebergs on ships for polar navigation. Finally, research potential in these areas is discussed.     

Influence of sea ice and sea surface temperature on the abundance of Antarctic krill in Area 48.2

In this paper we examine the relationship between Antarctic krill catch, sea ice concentration, and sea surface tempera- ture （SST）. Data on the Antarctic krill catch from 2003 to 2010 in CCAMLR Area 48.2 were combined with sea ice and SST data. Results showed that krill fishing in Area 48.2 took place from February to August each year but the catch was concentrated from March to July, with production during this period accounting for about 99.3% of the annual catch. Regression analysis showed that the catch per unit effort （CPUE） was clearly related to sea ice concentration and SST intervals. CPUE was negatively correlated with the area of sea ice among years （R2=0.64）, and the correlation was strongest （R2=0.71） when sea ice concentration was greater than 90%. Over the months the CPUE initially increased, then decreased as the area of sea ice increased. The relationship was strongest （R2=0.88） when the concentration of sea ice was 60%--70%. There was no negative correlation among years between CPUE and the ice-free area when S ST was between -2 ℃ and 3 ℃ （R2=0.21）, but there was a significant negative correlation when SST was between 1 ℃ and 2℃ （R2=0.82）. Over the months, CPUE initially increased then decreased with increasing sea ice-free area, and the relationship was strongest （R2=0.94） when SST was between 0℃and 1 ℃. This study shows that sea ice concentra- tion and SST have significant effects on the abundance of krill in Area 48.2, and the findings have practical significance for the use and conservation of Antarctic krill resources.     

A coupled multi-category sea ice model and POM for Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea

An overview of the seasonal variation of sea-ice cover in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea is given. A coupled ice-ocean model, CECOM, has been developed to study the seasonal variation and associated ice-ocean processes. The sea-ice component of the model is a multi-category ice model in which mean concentration and thickness are expressed in terms of a thickness distribution function. Ten categories of ice thickness are specified in the model. Sea ice is coupled dynamically and thermodynamically to the Princeton Ocean Model. Selected results from the model including the seasonal variation of sea ice in Baffin Bay, the North Water polynya and ice growth and melt over the Labrador Shelf are presented.     

Seasonal changes in sea ice conditions along the Northeast Passage in 2007 and 2012

Remote sensing data from passive microwave and satellite-based altimeters, associated with the data measured underway, were used to characterize seasonal and spatial changes in sea ice conditions along...     

Advancing the understanding of variations of Arctic sea ice optical and thermal behaviors through an international research and mobility project

In recent decades, significant changes of Arctic sea ice have taken place. These changes are expected to influence the surface energy balance of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. To quantify this energy ba...     

The progress in the study of Arctic pack ice ecology

The sea ice community plays an important role in the Arctic marine ecosystem. Because of the predicted environmental changes in the Arctic environment and specifically related to sea ice, the Arctic pack ice biota has received more attention in recent years using modem ice-breaking research vessels. Studies show that the Arctic pack ice contains a diverse biota and besides ice algae, the bacterial and protozoan biomasses can be high. Surprisingly high primary production values were observed in the pack ice of the central Arctic Ocean. Occasionally biomass maximum were discovered in the interior of the ice floes, a habitat that had been ignored in most Arctic studies. Many scientific questions, which deserve special attention, remained unsolved due to logistic limitations and the sea ice characteristics. Little is know about the pack ice community in the central Arctic Ocean. Almost no data exists from the pack ice zone for the winter season. Concerning the abundance of bacteria and protozoa, more studies are needed to understand the microbial network within the ice and its role in material and energy flows. The response of the sea ice biota to global change will impact the entire Arctic marine ecosystem and a long-term monitoring program is needed. The techniques, that are applied to study the sea ice biota and the sea ice ecology, should be improved.     

Analysis of multi-dimensional SAR for determining the thickness of thin sea ice in the Bohai Sea

Flat thin ice (<30 cm thick) is a common ice type in the Bohai Sea, China. Ice thickness detection is important to offshore exploration and marine transport in winter. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can be used to acquire sea ice data in all weather conditions, and it is a useful tool for monitoring sea ice conditions. In this paper, we combine a multi-layered sea ice electromagnetic (EM) scattering model with a sea ice thermodynamic model to assess the determination of the thickness of flat thin ice in the Bohai Sea using SAR at different frequencies, polarization, and incidence angles. Our modeling studies suggest that co-polarization backscattering coefficients and the co-polarized ratio can be used to retrieve the thickness of flat thin ice from C- and X-band SAR, while the co-polarized correlation coefficient can be used to retrieve flat thin ice thickness from L-, C-, and X-band SAR. Importantly, small or moderate incidence angles should be chosen to avoid the effect of speckle noise.     

Preliminary results on relationship between thermal diffusivity and porosity of sea ice in the Antarctic

The in situ sea-ice temperature, salinity and density observed from Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station have been applied to calculate the vertical profile of sea ice porosity. Based on numerical method, a number of schemes on sea-ice thermal diffusivity versus porosity have been accessed and one optimized scheme is identified by an optimal control model with an advanced distributing parameter system. For simplicity, the internal heating source item was neglected in the heat conduction equation during the identification procedure. In order to illustrate the applicability of this identified scheme, the vertical ice temperature profiles have been simulated and compared with measurements, respectively by using identified scheme and by classical thermodynamic formulae.The comparisons indicated that the scheme describing sea-ice thermal diffusivity and porosity is reasonable. In spite of a minor improvement of accuracy of results against in situ data, the identified scheme has a more physical meaning and could be used potentially in various applications.     

Studies on culture condition and extracellular hydrolase of psychrophilic bacteria from Arctic sea ice

Arctic sea ice in the polar region provides a cold habitat for microbial community. Arctic sea ice microorganisms are revealed to be of considerable importance in basic research and potential in biotechnological application. This paper investigated the culture condition and extraceIlular hydrolase of 14 strains of different Arctic sea ice bacteria. The results showed that optimal growth temperature of strains is 15 ℃ or 20 ℃. The optimal pH is about 8.0. They hardly grow at acid condition. 3 % NaCl is necessary for better growth. These strains have different abilities in producing amylase, protease, eellulase and lipase. Pseudoalteronomas sp. Bsi429 and Pseudoalteronomas sp. Bsi539 produced both cellulose, protease and lipase. These results provide a basis for further developing and exploiting the cold adapted marine enzyme resources.