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AN ANALYSIS OF ANTARCTIC SEA‐ICE AND EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE ASSOCIATIONS
Author(s) -
GODFREDSPENNING CHRISTOPHER R.,
SIMMONDS IAN
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0088(199612)16:12<1315::aid-joc92>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - extratropical cyclone , climatology , sea ice , cyclogenesis , cyclone (programming language) , arctic ice pack , antarctic sea ice , geology , fast ice , oceanography , tropical cyclogenesis , environmental science , field programmable gate array , computer science , computer hardware
We have examined aspects of the association between Antarctic sea‐ice and Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones for the period 1973–1991, on a seasonal time‐scale. It has been found that a sea‐ice–cyclone link is not apparent over the entire sea‐ice zone. However, we have found suggestions of interannual connections over certain regimes during particular seasons. Among the connections identified was an association between sea‐ice and spatial‐system density in the Amundsen Sea in summer. Also, winter cyclogenesis density in the Ross and Bellingshausen Seas appears strongly connected to ice in the same region. By analysing the results obtained through lagging and leading the sea‐ice time series by one season, we have concluded that the forcing of sea‐ice distribution by atmospheric stresses (either thermally or via wind manipulation) is a more dominant factor than anomalous sea‐ice conditions altering cyclone tracks or spatial density, a finding supported by the more widespread incidence of significant correlation when the sea‐ice time series lagged both system density and cyclogenesis by one season. Our results also show that cyclone density appeared associated more strongly with sea‐ice either ‘upstream’ or ‘downstream’, especially for cyclones in certain sections of the Weddell and Ross Seas during spring. On the other hand, winter cyclogenesis was most strongly linked to local sea‐ice.