TY - JOUR
T1 - Summertime low clouds mediate the impact of the large-scale circulation on Arctic sea ice
AU - Huang, Yiyi
AU - Ding, Qinghua
AU - Dong, Xiquan
AU - Xi, Baike
AU - Baxter, Ian
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship program to Y.H. at the University of Arizona (80NSSC18K1339). Q.D. and I.B. were supported by NSF’s Polar Programs (OPP-1744598) and Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (NA19OAR4310281), and Climate Variability and Predictability (NA18OAR4310424) programs as part of NOAA’s Climate Program Office. X.D. and B.X. were supported by NASA CERES project through grant 80NSSC19K0172 at the University of Arizona. We would like to acknowledge high-performance computing support from Cheyenne ( https://doi.org/10.5065/D6RX99HX ) provided by NCAR’s Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. We also acknowledge computing support from CESM Polar Climate Working Group, particularly Marika Holland for her constructive suggestions.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship program to Y.H. at the University of Arizona (80NSSC18K1339). Q.D. and I.B. were supported by NSF’s Polar Programs (OPP-1744598) and Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (NA19OAR4310281), and Climate Variability and Predictability (NA18OAR4310424) programs as part of NOAA’s Climate Program Office. X.D. and B.X. were supported by NASA CERES project through grant 80NSSC19K0172 at the University of Arizona. We would like to acknowledge high-performance computing support from Cheyenne (https://doi.org/10.5065/D6RX99HX) provided by NCAR’s Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. We also acknowledge computing support from CESM Polar Climate Working Group, particularly Marika Holland for her constructive suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - The rapid Arctic sea ice retreat in the early 21st century is believed to be driven by several dynamic and thermodynamic feedbacks, such as ice-albedo feedback and water vapor feedback. However, the role of clouds in these feedbacks remains unclear since the causality between clouds and these processes is complex. Here, we use NASA CERES satellite products and NCAR CESM model simulations to suggest that summertime low clouds have played an important role in driving sea ice melt by amplifying the adiabatic warming induced by a stronger anticyclonic circulation aloft. The upper-level high pressure regulates low clouds through stronger downward motion and increasing lower troposphere relative humidity. The increased low clouds favor more sea ice melt via emitting stronger longwave radiation. Then decreased surface albedo triggers a positive ice-albedo feedback, which further enhances sea ice melt. Considering the importance of summertime low clouds, accurate simulation of this process is a prerequisite for climate models to produce reliable future projections of Arctic sea ice.
AB - The rapid Arctic sea ice retreat in the early 21st century is believed to be driven by several dynamic and thermodynamic feedbacks, such as ice-albedo feedback and water vapor feedback. However, the role of clouds in these feedbacks remains unclear since the causality between clouds and these processes is complex. Here, we use NASA CERES satellite products and NCAR CESM model simulations to suggest that summertime low clouds have played an important role in driving sea ice melt by amplifying the adiabatic warming induced by a stronger anticyclonic circulation aloft. The upper-level high pressure regulates low clouds through stronger downward motion and increasing lower troposphere relative humidity. The increased low clouds favor more sea ice melt via emitting stronger longwave radiation. Then decreased surface albedo triggers a positive ice-albedo feedback, which further enhances sea ice melt. Considering the importance of summertime low clouds, accurate simulation of this process is a prerequisite for climate models to produce reliable future projections of Arctic sea ice.
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U2 - 10.1038/s43247-021-00114-w
DO - 10.1038/s43247-021-00114-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85107919407
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 2
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 38
ER -