Identification

Title

The relative role of the subsurface Southern Ocean in driving negative Antarctic Sea ice extent anomalies in 2016–2021

Abstract

The low Antarctic sea ice extent following its dramatic decline in late 2016 has persisted over a multiyear period. However, it remains unclear to what extent this low sea ice extent can be attributed to changing ocean conditions. Here, we investigate the causes of this period of low Antarctic sea ice extent using a coupled climate model partially constrained by observations. We find that the subsurface Southern Ocean played a smaller role than the atmosphere in the extreme sea ice extent low in 2016, but was critical for the persistence of negative anomalies over 2016-2021. Prior to 2016, the subsurface Southern Ocean warmed in response to enhanced westerly winds. Decadal hindcasts show that subsurface warming has persisted and gradually destabilized the ocean from below, reducing sea ice extent over several years. The simultaneous variations in the atmosphere and ocean after 2016 have further amplified the decline in Antarctic sea ice extent.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d70k2dd3

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2022-11-30T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact