Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 31 (2004): L03302, doi:10.1029/2003GL019023.
Description:
This paper presents a mechanism of decadal variability in the Artic Ocean–GIN Sea (Greenland, Iceland and Norwegian Seas) atmosphere-ice-ocean system. We hypothesize that Arctic variability is regulated by heat and freshwater exchange between the Arctic Ocean and the GIN Sea. The interaction between basins is weak during anticyclonic circulation regimes (low AO/NAO) and strong during cyclonic circulation regimes (high AO/NAO). Regime shifts are controlled by the system itself through oceanic and atmospheric gradients (dynamic height and surface air temperature) that increase during the anticyclonic regime and decrease during the cyclonic regime. This conceptual mechanism for Arctic decadal variability has been reproduced in a model experiment. Both model results and observational data support the suggested mechanism.
Description:
This research has been supported by the
National Science Foundation and by the International Arctic Research
Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, under auspices of the United States
National Science Foundation and from the Alaska Sea Grant through the
Center for Global Change, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
