Recent variations of sea ice and air temperature in high latitudes

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1993)074<0033:RVOSIA>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:6576999

Chapman, W L; Walsh, J E ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana (United States)

Feedbacks resulting from the retreat of sea ice and snow contribute to the polar amplification of the greenhouse warming projected by global climate models. A gridded sea-ice database, for which the record length is now approaching four decades for the Arctic and two decades for the Antarctic, is summarized here. The sea-ice fluctuations derived from the data set are characterized by (1) temporal scales of several seasons to several years and (2) spatial scales of 30[degrees]-180[degrees] of longitude. The ice data are examined in conjunction with air temperature data for evidence of recent climate change in the polar regions. The arctic sea-ice variations over the past several decades are compatible with the corresponding air temperatures, which show a distinct warming that is strongest over northern land areas during the winter and spring. The temperature trends over the sub arctic seas are smaller and even negative in the southern Greenland region. Statistically significant decreases of the summer extent of arctic ice are apparent in the sea-ice data, and new summer minima have been achieved three times in the past 15 years. There is no significant trend of ice extent in the Arctic during winter or in the Antarctic during any season. The seasonal and geographical changes of sea-ice coverage are consistent with the more recent greenhouse experiments performed with coupled atmosphere-ocean models.

• OSTI ID: 6576999
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society; (United States), Vol. 74:1; ISSN 0003-0007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
EVALUATION
ICE
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
CLIMATE MODELS
COMPILED DATA
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
GREENLAND
POLAR REGIONS
SEAS
SNOW
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
CRYOSPHERE
DATA
FLUIDS
GASES
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL DATA
SURFACE WATERS
VARIATIONS
540110*
540310 - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- (1990-)