Quantification of the Arctic Sea ice‐driven atmospheric circulation variability in coordinated large ensemble simulations

Liang, Yu‐Chiao; Kwon, Young‐Oh; Frankignoul, Claude; Danabasoglu, Gokhan; Yeager, Stephen; Cherchi, Annalisa; Gao, Yongqi; Gastineau, Guillaume; Ghosh, Rohit; Matei, Daniela; Mecking, Jennifer V.; Peano, Daniele; Suo, Lingling; Tian, Tian. 2020 Quantification of the Arctic Sea ice‐driven atmospheric circulation variability in coordinated large ensemble simulations. Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085397

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085397

Abstract/Summary

A coordinated set of large ensemble atmosphere‐only simulations is used to investigate the impacts of observed Arctic sea ice‐driven variability (SIDV) on the atmospheric circulation during 1979–2014. The experimental protocol permits separating Arctic SIDV from internal variability and variability driven by other forcings including sea surface temperature and greenhouse gases. The geographic pattern of SIDV is consistent across seven participating models, but its magnitude strongly depends on ensemble size. Based on 130 members, winter SIDV is ~0.18 hPa2 for Arctic‐averaged sea level pressure (~1.5% of the total variance), and ~0.35 K2 for surface air temperature (~21%) at interannual and longer timescales. The results suggest that more than 100 (40) members are needed to separate Arctic SIDV from other components for dynamical (thermodynamical) variables, and insufficient ensemble size always leads to overestimation of SIDV. Nevertheless, SIDV is 0.75–1.5 times as large as the variability driven by other forcings over northern Eurasia and Arctic.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085397
ISSN:	0094-8276
Date made live:	28 Feb 2020 15:31 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527067

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085397

ISSN:

0094-8276

Date made live:

28 Feb 2020 15:31 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527067