Dipole anomaly in the Arctic atmosphere and winter Arctic sea ice motion

This paper investigates a previously-ignored atmospheric circulation anomaly-dipole structure anomaly in the arctic atmosphere, and its relationship with the winter sea ice motion, based on analyses of the International Arctic Buoy Programme Data (1979-1998) and datasets from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for the period of 1960-2002. The dipole structure anomaly is the second-leading mode of EOF of monthly mean SLP north of 70°N during the winter season (Oct.-Mar.), which accounts for 13% of the variance. One of its two anomaly centers is over the Canadian Archipelago; the other is situated over northern Eurasia and the Siberian marginal seas. Due to the dipole structure anomaly’s strong meridionality, it becomes an important mechanism to drive both anomalous sea ice export out of the Arctic Basin and cold air outbreaks into the Barents Sea, the Nordic Seas and northern Europe.