HR: 12:05h
AN: C52A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Recent Change of Arctic Sea Ice Cover
AU: * Maslowski, W
EM: maslowsk@nps.edu
AF: Naval Postgraduate School, Oceanography Dept., 833 Dyer Rd., Monterey, CA 93943 United States
AU: Clement, J L
EM: jlclemen@nps.edu
AF: Naval Postgraduate School, Oceanography Dept., 833 Dyer Rd., Monterey, CA 93943 United States
AU: Williams, C E
EM: cewillia@nps.edu
AF: Naval Postgraduate School, Oceanography Dept., 833 Dyer Rd., Monterey, CA 93943 United States
AU: Walczowski, W
EM: walczows@iopan.gda.pl
AF: Institute of Oceanology, PAS, Powstancow Warszawy 55, Sopot, 81-712 Poland
AB: A high resolution coupled ice-ocean model of the Pan-Arctic region forced with realistic atmospheric data is used to investigate causes and long-term variability trends of the Arctic Ocean and its sea ice. Model results suggest that the recent decrease of sea ice cover might be in part due to the delayed effect of thermodynamic interactions at the ice-ocean interface, in particular upward heat fluxes, resulting from increased advection of warm Atlantic and summer Pacific waters into the central Arctic Ocean during the 1990s. More importantly, the modeled rate of decrease of sea ice thickness and volume, especially during the last several years, appears to be larger than that of ice extent and concentration as determined from satellite data. Through air-sea-ice interactions the recent decrease of total sea ice volume leads to an increase of freshwater content, which when exported out of the Arctic Ocean into the active convection regions of the sub-polar North Atlantic can potentially provide an even larger freshwater signal than that of the 1980s to mid-1990s. Such changes will have major consequences to the global ocean thermohaline circulation as well as to the long term global ocean heat and salt transports and climate. The warming trend, if continued, will not only significantly affect global climate but will also change the strategic and economic importance of the Arctic Ocean through its use for commercial shipping routes and increased exploration of natural resources.
DE: 9315 Arctic region
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
DE: 4215 Climate and interannual variability (3309)
DE: 4255 Numerical modeling
DE: 4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting