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Remarkable separability of circulation response to Arctic sea ice loss and greenhouse gas forcing
Author(s) -
McCusker K. E.,
Kushner P. J.,
Fyfe J. C.,
Sigmond M.,
Kharin V. V.,
Bitz C. M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl074327
Subject(s) - climatology , arctic ice pack , sea ice , environmental science , arctic sea ice decline , arctic , forcing (mathematics) , greenhouse gas , arctic geoengineering , climate change , climate model , ice albedo feedback , atmospheric sciences , atmospheric circulation , drift ice , geology , oceanography
Arctic sea ice loss may influence midlatitude climate by changing large‐scale circulation. The extent to which climate change can be understood as greenhouse gas‐induced changes that are modulated by this loss depends on how additive the responses to the separate influences are. A novel sea ice nudging methodology in a fully coupled climate model reveals that the separate effects of doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentrations and associated Arctic sea ice loss are remarkably additive and insensitive to the mean climate state. This separability is evident in several fields throughout most of the year, from hemispheric to synoptic scales. The extent to which the regional response to sea ice loss sometimes agrees with and sometimes cancels the response to CO 2 is quantified. The separability of the responses might provide a means to better interpret the diverse array of modeling and observational studies of Arctic change and influence.