Tropical and Antarctic sea ice impacts of observed Southern Ocean warming and cooling trends since 1949

Southern Ocean (SO) sea surface temperatures (SSTs) warmed from approximately 1949–1978 and cooled slightly from 1979–2013. We compare the remote impacts of these SO trends using historical coupled model experiments in which the model’s SO SST anomalies are nudged to observations. Compared to the control (no nudging) ensemble, the nudged ensemble shows enhanced SST warming in the tropical southeast Pacific and Atlantic, and greater Antarctic sea ice loss, during the SO warming period: analogous to the impacts of SO cooling but of opposite sign. The SO-driven response in the tropical Pacific (Atlantic) is statistically significant when considering the trend difference between the two periods, and accounts for 34% (59%) of the observed non-radiatively forced trend. Surface heat budget analysis indicates wind-evaporation-SST feedback dominates over shortwave cloud feedback in amplifying the SO-driven SST trends in the tropics during the SO warming period, opposite to that for the SO cooling period.

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Related Dataset #1 : Seasonal Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Reconstructions, 1905-2020, Version 1

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Author ZHANG, X.
Deser, Clara
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2024-12-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-10T19:56:41.080948
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:42022
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation ZHANG, X., Deser, Clara. (2024). Tropical and Antarctic sea ice impacts of observed Southern Ocean warming and cooling trends since 1949. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7988c99. Accessed 09 August 2025.

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