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Fast Response of the Tropics to an Abrupt Loss of Arctic Sea Ice via Ocean Dynamics
Author(s) -
Wang Kun,
Deser Clara,
Sun Lantao,
Tomas Robert A.
Publication year - 2018
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 - 10.1029/2018gl077325
Subject(s) - climatology , sea ice , sea surface temperature , geology , advection , intertropical convergence zone , ocean dynamics , arctic sea ice decline , ocean current , convergence zone , environmental science , arctic ice pack , ocean heat content , atmospheric sciences , drift ice , precipitation , meteorology , geography , physics , thermodynamics
The role of ocean dynamics in the transient adjustment of the coupled climate system to an abrupt loss of Arctic sea ice is investigated using experiments with Community Climate System Model version 4 in two configurations: a thermodynamic slab mixed layer ocean and a full‐depth ocean that includes both dynamics and thermodynamics. Ocean dynamics produce a distinct sea surface temperature warming maximum in the eastern equatorial Pacific, accompanied by an equatorward intensification of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and Hadley Circulation. These tropical responses are established within 25 years of ice loss and contrast markedly with the quasi‐steady antisymmetric coupled response in the slab‐ocean configuration. A heat budget analysis reveals the importance of anomalous vertical advection tied to a monotonic temperature increase below 200 m for the equatorial sea surface temperature warming maximum in the fully coupled model. Ocean dynamics also rapidly modify the midlatitude atmospheric response to sea ice loss.