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The Impact of an Intense Cyclone on Short‐Term Sea Ice Loss in a Fully Coupled Atmosphere‐Ocean‐Ice Model
Author(s) -
Stern Daniel P.,
Doyle James D.,
Barton Neil P.,
Finocchio Peter M.,
Komaromi William A.,
Metzger E. Joseph
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2019gl085580
Subject(s) - cyclone (programming language) , sea ice , arctic ice pack , advection , atmosphere (unit) , geology , climatology , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geography , physics , field programmable gate array , computer science , computer hardware , thermodynamics
Abstract Arctic cyclones may be associated with periods of locally enhanced sea ice loss during the summer, and some studies have found that an intense cyclone in August 2012 resulted in a rapid sea ice retreat. This study uses a coupled atmosphere‐ocean‐ice model (Navy‐ESPC) to explore the relationship between the 2012 cyclone and short‐term sea ice melting. There are two mechanisms of cyclone‐induced melting in Navy‐ESPC: turbulent mixing of a warm layer located at 15‐ to 35‐m depth increases bottom melting and warm air advection by the strong surface winds increases surface melting. Although the rate of sea ice melt is substantially increased in association with the cyclone, this effect is confined to a relatively small region and only lasts for a few days. There is no clear signature of the cyclone on the overall Arctic sea ice extent in Navy‐ESPC.