Sea ice in the Barents Sea: seasonal to interannual variability and climate feedbacks in a global coupled model

Sea ice variability in the Barents Sea and its impact on climate are analyzed using a 465-year control integration of a global coupled atmosphere–ocean–sea ice model. Sensitivity simulations are performed to investigate the response to an isolated sea ice anomaly in the Barents Sea. The interannual variability of sea ice volume in the Barents Sea is mainly determined by variations in sea ice import into Barents Sea from the Central Arctic. This import is primarily driven by the local wind field. Horizontal oceanic heat transport into the Barents Sea is of minor importance for interannual sea ice variations but is important on longer time scales. Events with strong positive sea ice anomalies in the Barents Sea are due to accumulation of sea ice by enhanced sea ice imports and related NAO-like pressure conditions in the years before the event. Sea ice volume and concentration stay above normal in the Barents Sea for about 2 years after an event. This strongly increases the albedo and reduces the ocean heat release to the atmosphere. Consequently, air temperature is much colder than usual in the Barents Sea and surrounding areas. Precipitation is decreased and sea level pressure in the Barents Sea is anomalously high. The large-scale atmospheric response is limited with the main impact being a reduced pressure over Scandinavia in the year after a large ice volume occurs in the Barents Sea. Furthermore, high sea ice volume in the Barents Sea leads to increased sea ice melting and hence reduced surface salinity. Generally, the climate response is smallest in summer and largest in winter and spring.     

A tide in the operational model for short-range forecast of current velocity and sea level in the Barents and White seas

The operational model for the short-range forecast of velocity of currents and the sea level of the Barents and White seas is introduced into the automatic system of operational data processing of Hydrometcenter of Russia and works in the operational mode. The tidal block of the model is verified using eight major harmonics of the tide in the Barents and White seas. It is revealed that the model simulates adequately the large-scale features of tidal circulation in the Barents Sea. The model verification is based on the comparison between the diagnostic computation of the total sea level and the observational data on the sea level from the automatic buoy station. Demonstrated is a good agreement between the total sea level computations and the observations in the area of Teriberka settlement. The model takes account of the ice presence and simulates the ice effects on the currents. It is established that the ice presence affects significantly the amplitude and phase of tidal waves, especially in coastal regions.     

BCC_CSM北极海冰模拟性能的改进对东亚冬季气候模拟的影响

国家气候中心气候系统模式(BCC_CSM)将美国Los Alamos国家实验室发展的海冰模式CICE5.0替代原有的海冰模式SIS,形成一个新版本耦合模式,很好地提高了模式对北极海冰和北极气候的模拟能力.在此基础上,本文评估新耦合模式对1985-2014年东亚冬季气候的模拟性能,检验北极海冰模拟性能的改进对东亚冬季气候...     

冬季北半球大气对秋冬季巴伦支海海冰异常的敏感性研究

基于ERA-Interim再分析资料,借助大气模式CAM4,分析了北半球冬季不同月份的平均大气对巴伦支海不同振幅及不同季节海冰扰动的敏感性,并考察了中高纬度典型大气模态的分布变化情况.结果表明,冬季巴伦支海海冰的减少,会导致湍流热通量异常向上、局地异常变暖及水汽含量的异常升高,且相关异常的强度和范围随着海冰减少幅度的减...     

Diagnosis and forecast of the Caspian Sea level with the operational hydrodynamic model

The observational data on sea level at Tyulenii Island station were compared with the results of the Caspian Sea level simulation with the three-dimensional hydrodynamic model with different spatial horizontal resolution (3 and 1 nautical miles). The sea motion is induced by the air pressure gradients and tangential wind stress that are obtained from the COSMO model forecast and specified on the surface. The results of diagnostic calculations of the sea level for June-October 2014 and 60 forecasts for September 2014 demonstrated that the model with the 1-mile resolution meets the simulation accuracy requirements of the Hydrometcenter of Russia and can be used for the short-range forecasting of the Caspain Sea level.     

Possible impacts of Barents Sea ice on the Eurasian atmospheric circulation and the rainfall of East China in the beginning of summer

Possible influences of the Barents Sea ice anomalies on the Eurasian atmospheric circulation and the East China precipitation distribution in the late spring and early summer (May-June) are investigated by analyzing the observational data and the output of an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM).The study indicates that the sea ice condition of the Barents Sea from May to July may be interrelated with the atmospheric circulation of June. When there is more than average sea ice in the Barents Sea, the local geopotential height of the 500-hPa level will decrease, and the same height in the Lake Baikal and Okhotsk regions will increase and decrease respectively to form a wave-chain structure over North Eurasia.This kind of anomalous height pattern is beneficial to more precipitation in the south part of East China and less in the north.     

The influence of the North Atlantic on climate variations in the Barents Sea and their predictability

The effects of Atlantic water inflow on the climate variability in the Barents Sea are studied. Initial data are the series of water temperature at the Kola meridian cross-section, monthly values of ice extent, air temperature at the stations, sea level pressure from the reanalysis data, and sea surface temperature. The methods of multivariate correlation, spectral, and factor analysis and EOF decomposition are used. It was found that variations in the Atlantic water inflow define the main part of interannual variability of sea ice extent, water temperature, and air temperature in the Barents Sea in the cold season. The influence of regional atmospheric circulation on the interannual variability of these parameters is small. The effects that water temperature anomalies in the area of Newfoundland and in the equatorial part of the North Atlantic have on climate parameters in the Barents Sea are discovered. The response of these parameters lags behind the respective anomalies by 9-58 months. The high correlation between them makes it possible to develop the method of statistical forecasting of sea ice extent and water temperature in the Barents Sea with the lead time up to 4 years.     

BCC_CSM对全球海冰面积和厚度模拟及其误差成因分析

本文评估了国家气候中心发展的BCC_CSM模式对全球海冰的模拟能力,结果表明:该气候系统模式能够较好地模拟出全球海冰面积和厚度的时空分布特征,且南半球海冰模拟能力优于北半球。通过对比分析发现:年平均海冰面积模拟误差最大的区域位于鄂霍次克海、白令海和巴伦支海等海区,年平均海冰厚度分布与观测相近,在北半球冬季模拟的厚度偏薄;从海冰季节变化来看,模拟的夏季海冰面积偏低,冬季偏高;从海冰年际变化来看,近60年南北半球海冰面积模拟都比观测偏多,但南半球偏多幅度较小,然而北半球海冰年际变化趋势的模拟却好于南半球。另外,通过对海冰模拟误差成因分析,发现模拟的净辐射能量收入偏低使得海温异常偏冷,是导致北半球冬季海冰模拟偏多的主要原因。     

寒潮过程中风浪对黄海海气热量通量和动量通量影响研究

采用2009—2013年CFSR(Climate Forecast System Reanalysis)大气和海洋再分析资料对黄海海气间热量通量和动量通量的特征进行统计分析,并通过FVCOMSWAVE浪流耦合模式对典型寒潮过程中风浪的影响效果进行模拟研究与对比分析。统计结果显示,通量受海表大风、海气温差及海洋环流等因子影响,秋冬季节强烈,春夏季节相对较弱,在寒潮活跃的冷季该海域的海流处于弱流期,风浪对海面通量的作用明显增强。海温特征也显示冷季的不稳定性显著强于暖季,因此该海域冷季具有更强的海气热量通量。沿岸站点的比较显示,南部吕泗站面向更开阔的东海海域,其平均波高高出北部20%左右。这与沿海南部通量强于北部特征对应。数值模拟显示,在寒潮过程中,海气界面热量通量和动量通量输送比多年月平均状态显著增强,动量通量增大1~5倍,热量通量增大1~6倍。寒潮过程入海冷锋走向、强度、移动方向显著影响海面热量通量和动量通量大值区的分布。偏北路寒潮纬向型冷锋入海,其强度东部大于西部,造成通量大值区形成在黄海东北部,而偏西路寒潮经向型冷锋入海,其强度南部大于北部,造成通量大值区形成在黄海南部。同时偏北路径寒潮强度大于偏西路径,海气动量通量响应较偏西路径强约25%,热量通量强约50%。耦合风浪作用的模拟显示,海气间热量通量和动量通量明显增大,对不同强度风浪,浪高增加1.5倍,动量通量最大值增大约2倍,热量通量增大10~160 W/m2;浪高减弱至0.5倍,动量通量最大值则减弱约40%,热量通量减小10~55 W/m2。冷锋及其驱动的风浪强烈影响区域海气通量时空特征。     

Modeling Iceberg Drift in the Barents Sea from Field Data

The iceberg drift model is developed and used for simulating the iceberg drift trajectory in the Barents Sea. The model is forced by hydrometeorological characteristics obtained from ship observations. Original techniques for retrieving the sea-level slope gradient and surface velocity of currents are proposed, implemented, and validated using independent data. Thus, additional data were calculated from field data in order to use the iceberg drift model with the full set of external forces. This allowed improving the iceberg trajectory simulation and assessing the contribution of all forces that affect the iceberg drift. The iceberg drift calculations demonstrate that the drift characteristics are extremely sensitive to all external effects and the model parameters; therefore, the quality of input hydrometeorological data essentially affects the simulation of real iceberg trajectories.     

The climatic response of the Arctic Ocean to Soviet river diversions

A numerical model is constructed to evaluate the effect of river diversions on the circulation of the Arctic Ocean, including the climatically important response in the extent of sea ice. The ocean model solves the primitive equations of motion in finite-difference form for the irregular geometry of the Arctic Ocean and Greenland/Norwegian Sea, using 110 km horizontal grid spacing and up to 13 unevenly spaced levels in the vertical. Annual mean atmospheric conditions and river discharges are specified from observations. The presence of sea ice is diagnosed on the basis of model ocean temperature; and the effects of sea ice on the surface fluxes of momentum, heat, and salt are included in a simplified way. Lateral exchanges at the southernmost boundary are held near observed values but respond to circulation changes in the Greenland/Norwegian Sea. Three equilibrium solutions are obtained by eighty-year integrations from simple initial conditions: the first with inflow from all rivers, the second with one-third of the inflow diverted from four major rivers (the Ob, Yenesei, Dvina, and Pechora), and the third with total diversion from those rivers. The middle case corresponds to maximal diversions which are either planned or envisioned by the Soviet Union over the next fifty years, whereas the final extreme case is run in the event that model sensitivity is low relative to that of nature.The control integration gives a good simulation of known water masses and currents. In the Central Arctic, for example, the model correctly predicts a strong shallow halocline, a relatively warm intermediate layer of Atlantic origin, and a temperature jump across the deep Lomonosov Ridge. The overall pattern of surface salinity and the margin of the pack ice are also properly simulated.When runoff into the marginal Kara and Barents Seas is diverted, either in part or in full, almost no effect on the halocline results in the Central Arctic. In particular, deep convection does not develop in the Eurasian Basin, the possibility of which was suggested by Aagaard and Coachman (1975). The vertical stability within the two marginal seas is considerably decreased by the total diversion of four rivers, but not to the point of convective overturning. The surface currents in this area change to confine the water with increased salinity to the shelf region. At deeper levels, an increased salinity tongue spreads into the deep basins of the ice-free Greenland/Norwegian Sea, where existing deep convection is slightly enhanced. As a result, there is some additional heat loss from the Atlantic layer before it enters the Central Arctic. The ice extent remains nearly the same as before within the Kara and Barents Seas. In fact, since modified bottom currents over the continental shelf bring in less heat from the Greenland Sea, an increased thickness of sea ice may result there, in spite of reduced vertical stability. These model responses are generally in agreement with those suggested by Micklin (1981) and by Soviet investigations of the effect of river diversions. These annualmean results should be regarded as tentative, pending confirmation by studies which include the seasonal cycles of runoff and atmospheric forcing.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Numerical Simulation of the Novaya Zemlya Bora

The development of the bora in case of strong southeastern wind in the area of Novaya Zemlya in the winter-spring of 2016 is simulated using the WRF-ARW numerical atmosphere circulation model with high spatial resolution. The features of wind speed and air temperature fields are considered which define the formation of the intensive near-surface flow, the bora, over the lee western slope of the mountain range. It is demonstrated that the bora development leads to the air temperature rise over the eastern part of the Barents Sea, to the increased surface heat fluxes, and to the formation of the cloudless zone over the sea westward of Novaya Zemlya. It was found that the main reason for the bora development is the high stability of the atmospheric boundary layer over the Kara Sea. It is shown that in case of western wind the Novaya Zemlya archipelago does not exert considerable influence on the air exchange in the Kara Sea area.     

Impact of climatic change on the biological production in the Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is a high latitude ecosystem and is an important nursery and feeding area for commercial fish stocks such as cod, capelin and herring. There is a large inter-annual variability both in physical and biological conditions in the Barents Sea. Understanding and predicting changes in the system requires insight into the coupled nature of the physical and biological interactions. A coupled physical and biological ocean model is used to study the impact of postulated future atmospheric changes on the physical and biological conditions in the Barents Sea. Results from this simulation not only show that there is a large variability in the physical conditions on a wide range of time scales, but also that the temperature in the Barents Sea is increasing. The corresponding ice cover decrease is most noticeable in the summer months. The changes in physical properties will most likely have an impact on the biotope. On average, the primary production increases slightly over a 65 year long period, about 8%, partly due to an increased production in the northern Barents Sea. The model further simulates that the production of Atlantic zooplankton species increases approximately 20% and becomes more abundant in the east. The Arctic zooplankton biomass decreases significantly (50%) causing the total simulated production to decrease.     

Water Circulation Off the Northeastern Coast of Sakhalin during the Passage of Three Types of Deep Cyclones over the Sea of Okhotsk

Based on the numerical simulation of water circulation in the Sea of Okhotsk in 1986 to 2015, the impact of deep cyclones on the circulation off the northeastern coast of Sakhalin is studied. The circulation in the Sea of Okhotsk is simulated with the COSMO-Ru-INMOM-CICE model configuration, where the COSMO-Ru and INMOM resolve explicitly the mesoscale atmosphere and ocean dynamics and the CICE resolves the ice cover evolution. The extreme atmospheric events associated with the intensive cyclone activity over the Sea of Okhotsk during the cold season are classified. It is found that high velocity is typical of the cyclones coming to the sea from Sakhalin, and wind speed on the periphery is higher for the cyclones coming to the Sea of Okhotsk from the south and southwest. The analysis of water circulation response off the northeastern coast of Sakhalin demonstrates that the meridional current velocity on the shelf increased by several times from the sea surface to the bottom for all types of cyclones. On the edge of the shelf, southern currents intensified in the surface and bottom layers during the passage of cyclones and at the intermediate depths during the passage of fronts. On the continental slope, southern currents intensified in the surface, intermediate, and bottom layers depending on the type of extreme events.

     

Simulation of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in an atmosphere-ocean global coupled model. Part II: weakening in a climate change experiment: a feedback mechanism

Most state-of-the art global coupled models simulate a weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in climate change scenarios but the mechanisms leading to this weakening are still being debated. The third version of the CNRM (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques) global atmosphere-ocean-sea ice coupled model (CNRM-CM3) was used to conduct climate change experiments for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4). The analysis of the A1B scenario experiment shows that global warming leads to a slowdown of North Atlantic deep ocean convection and thermohaline circulation south of Iceland. This slowdown is triggered by a freshening of the Arctic Ocean and an increase in freshwater outflow through Fram Strait. Sea ice melting in the Barents Sea induces a local amplification of the surface warming, which enhances the cyclonic atmospheric circulation around Spitzberg. This anti-clockwise circulation forces an increase in Fram Strait outflow and a simultaneous increase in ocean transport of warm waters toward the Barents Sea, favouring further sea ice melting and surface warming in the Barents Sea. Additionally, the retreat of sea ice allows more deep water formation north of Iceland and the thermohaline circulation strengthens there. The transport of warm and saline waters toward the Barents Sea is further enhanced, which constitutes a second positive feedback.     

Climatic variations of ice conditions in different regions of the Barents Sea

Presented are the results of studying the regional peculiarities of climatic variations of spatiotemporal distribution of ice in the Barents Sea water area in 1977?C2010. Demonstrated is the dynamics of the interannual and seasonal variability of main elements of the ice regime (ice cover area, ice edge position, and ice period duration). Revealed are the common features and differences in the ice conditions in the water areas under study. It has been found that there is a significant feedback between the specific ice coverage in different areas of the sea. The climatic variations of the total ice coverage of the Barents Sea for the period of 1960?C2010 are analyzed using the electronic database on the Barents Sea ice coverage. It can be supposed that the current warm phase of climatic variations in the Barents Sea is coming to the end.     

北半球高纬地区年际尺度循环过程中的气-海-冰相互作用关系

基于一个全球气-海-冰耦合模式数值模拟结果,对北半球高纬度地区年际尺度的气-海-冰相互作用进行了分析。在所使用的全球气-海-冰耦合模式中,大气环流模式和陆面过程模式来自国家气候中心,海洋环流模式和海冰模式来自中国科学院大气物理研究所大气科学和地球流体力学数值模拟国家重点实验室。采用一种逐日通量距平耦合方案实现次网格尺度海冰非均匀条件下大气环流模式和海洋环流模式在高纬地区的耦合。只对50 a模拟结果中的后30 a结果进行了分析。在分析中,首先对滤波后的北半球高纬度地区海平面气压、表面大气温度、海表面温度、海冰密集度及海表面感热通量的标准化距平做联合复经验正交函数分解,取第一模进行重建,然后讨论了在一个循环周期(约4 a)中北半球高纬度地区气-海-冰的作用关系。结果表明:(1)当北大西洋涛动处于正位相时,格陵兰海出现南风异常,使表面大气温度升高,海洋失去感热通量减少,海洋表面温度升高,海冰密集度减小;当北大西洋涛动处于负位相时,格陵兰海出现北风异常,使表面大气温度降低,海洋失去感热通量增多,海洋表面温度降低,海冰密集度增加。巴伦支海变化特点与格陵兰海相似,但在时间上并不完全一致。(2)多年平均而言,北冰洋内部靠近极点区域为冷中心。当北冰洋内部为低压异常时,因异常中心偏向太平洋一侧,使北冰洋内部靠近太平洋部分为暖平流异常,靠近大西洋一侧为冷平流异常。伴随着暖、冷平流异常,这两侧分别出现暖异常和冷异常,海表面给大气的感热通量分别偏少和偏多,上述海区海表面温度分别偏高和偏低,海冰密集度分别偏小和偏大。当北冰洋内部为高压异常时特点正好与上述相反。由上述分析结果可知,在海洋、大气年际循环中,大尺度大气环流变率起主导作用,海洋表面温度和海冰密集度变化主要是对大气环流变化的响应。     

An integrated study of economic effects of and vulnerabilities to global warming on the Barents Sea cod fisheries

The Barents Sea area is characterised by a highly fluctuating physical environment causing substantial variations in the ecosystems and fisheries depending upon this. Simulations assuming different management regimes have been carried out to study how physical and biological effects of global warming influence the Barents Sea cod fisheries. A regional, high-resolution representation of the B2 world region (OECD90) scenario from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was used to calculate water temperatures and plankton biomasses by hydrodynamic modelling. These results were included in simulations performed by a multi-fleet, multi-species model, by which a fully integrated model linking to the global circulation model to the Barents Sea fisheries through a regional downscaling to the Barents Sea area is constructed. One factor of particular importance for the natural annual biological variations is the occasional inflow of young herring into the Barents Sea area. The herring inflow is difficult to predict and links to dynamical systems outside the Barents Sea area, complex recruitment mechanisms and oceanographic conditions. These processes are in the study represented by a stochastic representation of herring inflow based on historical observations. According to the performed simulations the biomass fluctuations may slightly increase over the next 25 years, possibly caused by changes in temperature patterns. Six different management regimes have been included in the study and the results support earlier studies claiming that the choice of management regime potentially has a greater importance for biological and economic performance in the Barents Sea fisheries than impacts which derive from global warming over the next 25 years. A basic assumption for this conclusion is however that the Barents Sea ecosystem essentially preserves its structure and composition of today. Possible, unpredictable significant shifts in the ecosystem structure are not considered.     

南极海冰涛动与ENSO的关系

对近30年南极海冰密集度资料的EOF和SVD分析，发现南极地区在罗斯海外围和别林斯高晋海的海冰密集度场存在着“翘翘板”的变化特征，并与ENSO有密切联系。由此定义两个海冰关键区的差值为南极海冰涛动指数（ASOI），ASOI超前SOI和Nino3指数2个月时，其正、负相关系数达到最大，并通过α=0.001的信度检验。ASOI高、低指数阶段对应的南半球海平面气温、气压场和风场的合成分析表明，海冰关键区的异常变化可能引起温度、气压、风场的响应而影响南太平洋的洋流，进而对ENSO的发生、发展产生影响。     

Drift of icebergs and ice fields in the northeastern part of the Barents Sea

Considered is the drift of 10 icebergs and 18 ice fields in the northeastern part of the Barents Sea from late May to September 2009. The drift speed is estimated by GPS measurements of geographic coordinates, and the wind, using the air pressure field. The drift variability in the range of synoptic and intraseasonal variability is analyzed by the vector-algebraic method based on the model of the random Euclidean vector. The conjugacy of the drift with the wind is represented by the indices of vector regression (the theory of A.M. Obukhov) and vector correlation. Ice fields differ from icebergs by the high velocities of drift, significant variability, and higher correlation with the wind (0.85–0.99 for fields and 0.78–0.91 for icebergs). The wind and nonwind components of the drift are singled out by the Watanabe-Gudkovich correlation method. Wind coefficients and angles of deviation for the wind drift component amounted to 0.016–0.023 and ?6°…+9° for fields and 0.010–0.015 and 10°–15° for icebergs. The cyclonic circulation is developed in the area of permanent surface currents (of the nonwind nature).