The Beaufort Gyre (BG) was spun up in the last decade which is an important factor in regulating the variation of the upper ocean. The heat content and freshwater content of the upper ocean increased gradually in th...The Beaufort Gyre (BG) was spun up in the last decade which is an important factor in regulating the variation of the upper ocean. The heat content and freshwater content of the upper ocean increased gradually in the Canada Basin, as did momentum input. Both the geostrophic wind curl and freshwater content could contribute to the spin-up of BG. However, even though there is no change of the wind field the increasing freshwater alone could result in the spin-up of BG. In this study we show that the Pacific Water is difficult to flow into the central basin as the BG spins up and the maximum temperature of the Pacific Summer Water (PSW) experienced a dramatic decrease inside the BG in 2005 and 2009 due to a change of flow pathway of PSW. The enhancement of Ekman Pumping (EP) contributed to the deepening of the Pacific Winter Water by piling up more freshwater. This change of water column dynamics has also contributed to the deepening ofthe Atlantic Water core after 2007. The EP decreased significantly in 2012 (indicating a spin down of BG) and the direction of Ekman transport turned to the north, which favoured the release of freshwater that had resided in the basin for years.展开更多
The Arctic sea-ice extent has shown a declining trend over the past 30 years. Ice coverage reached historic minima in 2007 and again in 2012. This trend has recently been assessed to be unique over at least the last 1...The Arctic sea-ice extent has shown a declining trend over the past 30 years. Ice coverage reached historic minima in 2007 and again in 2012. This trend has recently been assessed to be unique over at least the last 1450 years. In the summer of 2010, a very low sea-ice concentration(SIC) appeared at high Arctic latitudes—even lower than that of surrounding pack ice at lower latitudes. This striking low ice concentration—referred to here as a record low ice concentration in the central Arctic(CARLIC)—is unique in our analysis period of 2003–15, and has not been previously reported in the literature. The CARLIC was not the result of ice melt, because sea ice was still quite thick based on in-situ ice thickness measurements.Instead, divergent ice drift appears to have been responsible for the CARLIC. A high correlation between SIC and wind stress curl suggests that the sea ice drift during the summer of 2010 responded strongly to the regional wind forcing. The drift trajectories of ice buoys exhibited a transpolar drift in the Atlantic sector and an eastward drift in the Pacific sector,which appeared to benefit the CARLIC in 2010. Under these conditions, more solar energy can penetrate into the open water,increasing melt through increased heat flux to the ocean. We speculate that this divergence of sea ice could occur more often in the coming decades, and impact on hemispheric SIC and feed back to the climate.展开更多
Sea ice velocity impacts the distribution of sea ice,and the flux of exported sea ice through the Fram Strait increases with increasing ice velocity.Therefore,improving the accuracy of estimates of the sea ice velocit...Sea ice velocity impacts the distribution of sea ice,and the flux of exported sea ice through the Fram Strait increases with increasing ice velocity.Therefore,improving the accuracy of estimates of the sea ice velocity is important.We introduce a pyramid algorithm into the Horn-Schunck optical flow(HS-OF)method(to develop the PHS-OF method).Before calculating the sea ice velocity,we generate multilayer pyramid images from an original brightness temperature image.Then,the sea ice velocity of the pyramid layer is calculated,and the ice velocity in the original image is calculated by layer iteration.Winter Arctic sea ice velocities from 2014 to 2016 are obtained and used to discuss the accuracy of the HS-OF method and PHS-OF(specifically the 2-layer PHS-OF(2 LPHS-OF)and 4-layer PHS-OF(4 LPHS-OF))methods.The results prove that the PHS-OF method indeed improves the accuracy of sea ice velocity estimates,and the 2 LPHS-OF scheme is more appropriate for estimating ice velocity.The error is smaller for the 2 LPHS-OF velocity estimates than values from the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility and the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service,and estimates of changes in velocity by the 2 LPHS-OF method are consistent with those from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.Sea ice undergoes two main motion patterns,i.e.,transpolar drift and the Beaufort Gyre.In addition,cyclonic and anticyclonic ice drift occurred during winter 2016.Variations in sea ice velocity are related to the open water area,sea ice retreat time and length of the open water season.展开更多
The Beaufort Gyre reserves most of the freshwater in the Arctic Ocean.Observation shows that the freshwater content over 2016-2018 far exceeds the level over the plateau period 2008-2012.Modeling the vertical temperat...The Beaufort Gyre reserves most of the freshwater in the Arctic Ocean.Observation shows that the freshwater content over 2016-2018 far exceeds the level over the plateau period 2008-2012.Modeling the vertical temperature and salinity structure and their changes in the Beaufort Gyre is a way to understand the process related to such step changes.We configured a pan-Arctic sea ice-ocean model with a southern boundary at∼7°N in the Atlantic Ocean.The numerical simulation with sea surface salinity restoring,a latitude dependent horizontal diffusivity scaled by the squared buoyancy frequency,and a weak vertical diffusivity of 5×10^(−7) m^(2)s^(−1) in the Arctic Ocean better reproduces the sea ice extent,the Pacific summer halocline water,and the freshwater variations as observed.The sea surface salinity restoring mitigates the surface desalination in the North Atlantic Ocean,therefore a weaker ocean stratification prevents the excessive warming in the intermediate Arctic Ocean.It is also found that the weak vertical background diffusivity is the major factor in our model to preserve the vertical ocean structure in the Canada Basin and also the step change of freshwater recently.In addition to resolving eddy activities in high resolution models,the success in our low resolution model suggests that tuning the vertical diffusivity serves as another approach to simulate the increasing freshwater content in the recent decade.展开更多
The late Quaternary ice rafted detritus (IRD) events in the Chukchi Basin, western Arctic Ocean are indications of the provenance of the coarser detritus and ice export events, and also document the evolutionary histo...The late Quaternary ice rafted detritus (IRD) events in the Chukchi Basin, western Arctic Ocean are indications of the provenance of the coarser detritus and ice export events, and also document the evolutionary histories of Beaufort Gyre and the North American Ice Sheet (NAIS). The sediment of core M03 from the Chukchi Basin was selected to study the regional response to the ice export events and the NAIS variability. The stratigraphic framework of M03 was established by a combination of lithological features and downcore color change cycles, AMS14C dating with foraminifera abundance and IRD events. The core was also compared with the adjacent core NWR 5 from the Northwind Ridge area. The core extends back to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7. A sedimentary hiatus of 10―20 ka might occur between 16 to 20 cm core depth. Seven IRD events are distinguished from the studied core and are presented during the early MIS 1, MIS 3, MIS 5 and late MIS 7. These IRD are transported by sea ice and icebergs, which were exported to the Beaufort Sea from the M'Clure Strait Ice Stream, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and brought to the Chukchi Basin by the Beaufort Gyre.展开更多
基金The Key Project of Chinese Natural Science Foundation under contract No.41330960the National Basic Research Program of China under contract No.2015CB953902the Project of Study on the seasonal halocline and near sea surface temperature maximum in Arctic under contract No.41306196
文摘The Beaufort Gyre (BG) was spun up in the last decade which is an important factor in regulating the variation of the upper ocean. The heat content and freshwater content of the upper ocean increased gradually in the Canada Basin, as did momentum input. Both the geostrophic wind curl and freshwater content could contribute to the spin-up of BG. However, even though there is no change of the wind field the increasing freshwater alone could result in the spin-up of BG. In this study we show that the Pacific Water is difficult to flow into the central basin as the BG spins up and the maximum temperature of the Pacific Summer Water (PSW) experienced a dramatic decrease inside the BG in 2005 and 2009 due to a change of flow pathway of PSW. The enhancement of Ekman Pumping (EP) contributed to the deepening of the Pacific Winter Water by piling up more freshwater. This change of water column dynamics has also contributed to the deepening ofthe Atlantic Water core after 2007. The EP decreased significantly in 2012 (indicating a spin down of BG) and the direction of Ekman transport turned to the north, which favoured the release of freshwater that had resided in the basin for years.
基金funded by the Global Change Research Program of China(Grant No.2015CB953900)the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.41330960 and 41406208)+1 种基金the Canada Research Chairs Program,NSERCCanadian Federal IPY Program Office
文摘The Arctic sea-ice extent has shown a declining trend over the past 30 years. Ice coverage reached historic minima in 2007 and again in 2012. This trend has recently been assessed to be unique over at least the last 1450 years. In the summer of 2010, a very low sea-ice concentration(SIC) appeared at high Arctic latitudes—even lower than that of surrounding pack ice at lower latitudes. This striking low ice concentration—referred to here as a record low ice concentration in the central Arctic(CARLIC)—is unique in our analysis period of 2003–15, and has not been previously reported in the literature. The CARLIC was not the result of ice melt, because sea ice was still quite thick based on in-situ ice thickness measurements.Instead, divergent ice drift appears to have been responsible for the CARLIC. A high correlation between SIC and wind stress curl suggests that the sea ice drift during the summer of 2010 responded strongly to the regional wind forcing. The drift trajectories of ice buoys exhibited a transpolar drift in the Atlantic sector and an eastward drift in the Pacific sector,which appeared to benefit the CARLIC in 2010. Under these conditions, more solar energy can penetrate into the open water,increasing melt through increased heat flux to the ocean. We speculate that this divergence of sea ice could occur more often in the coming decades, and impact on hemispheric SIC and feed back to the climate.
基金The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract Nos 2018YFC1407200 and 2018YFC1407203the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No.41976212
文摘Sea ice velocity impacts the distribution of sea ice,and the flux of exported sea ice through the Fram Strait increases with increasing ice velocity.Therefore,improving the accuracy of estimates of the sea ice velocity is important.We introduce a pyramid algorithm into the Horn-Schunck optical flow(HS-OF)method(to develop the PHS-OF method).Before calculating the sea ice velocity,we generate multilayer pyramid images from an original brightness temperature image.Then,the sea ice velocity of the pyramid layer is calculated,and the ice velocity in the original image is calculated by layer iteration.Winter Arctic sea ice velocities from 2014 to 2016 are obtained and used to discuss the accuracy of the HS-OF method and PHS-OF(specifically the 2-layer PHS-OF(2 LPHS-OF)and 4-layer PHS-OF(4 LPHS-OF))methods.The results prove that the PHS-OF method indeed improves the accuracy of sea ice velocity estimates,and the 2 LPHS-OF scheme is more appropriate for estimating ice velocity.The error is smaller for the 2 LPHS-OF velocity estimates than values from the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility and the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service,and estimates of changes in velocity by the 2 LPHS-OF method are consistent with those from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.Sea ice undergoes two main motion patterns,i.e.,transpolar drift and the Beaufort Gyre.In addition,cyclonic and anticyclonic ice drift occurred during winter 2016.Variations in sea ice velocity are related to the open water area,sea ice retreat time and length of the open water season.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(42176235)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2019YFA0607000,2019YFC1509100).
文摘The Beaufort Gyre reserves most of the freshwater in the Arctic Ocean.Observation shows that the freshwater content over 2016-2018 far exceeds the level over the plateau period 2008-2012.Modeling the vertical temperature and salinity structure and their changes in the Beaufort Gyre is a way to understand the process related to such step changes.We configured a pan-Arctic sea ice-ocean model with a southern boundary at∼7°N in the Atlantic Ocean.The numerical simulation with sea surface salinity restoring,a latitude dependent horizontal diffusivity scaled by the squared buoyancy frequency,and a weak vertical diffusivity of 5×10^(−7) m^(2)s^(−1) in the Arctic Ocean better reproduces the sea ice extent,the Pacific summer halocline water,and the freshwater variations as observed.The sea surface salinity restoring mitigates the surface desalination in the North Atlantic Ocean,therefore a weaker ocean stratification prevents the excessive warming in the intermediate Arctic Ocean.It is also found that the weak vertical background diffusivity is the major factor in our model to preserve the vertical ocean structure in the Canada Basin and also the step change of freshwater recently.In addition to resolving eddy activities in high resolution models,the success in our low resolution model suggests that tuning the vertical diffusivity serves as another approach to simulate the increasing freshwater content in the recent decade.
基金part of the project "Second Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition" (or CHINARE-2003) supported by the Ministry of Finance of China and organized by the Chinese Arctic and supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. G2007CB815903)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40321603 and 40676030)Chinese IPY Program (Grant No. 2007―2009)
文摘The late Quaternary ice rafted detritus (IRD) events in the Chukchi Basin, western Arctic Ocean are indications of the provenance of the coarser detritus and ice export events, and also document the evolutionary histories of Beaufort Gyre and the North American Ice Sheet (NAIS). The sediment of core M03 from the Chukchi Basin was selected to study the regional response to the ice export events and the NAIS variability. The stratigraphic framework of M03 was established by a combination of lithological features and downcore color change cycles, AMS14C dating with foraminifera abundance and IRD events. The core was also compared with the adjacent core NWR 5 from the Northwind Ridge area. The core extends back to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7. A sedimentary hiatus of 10―20 ka might occur between 16 to 20 cm core depth. Seven IRD events are distinguished from the studied core and are presented during the early MIS 1, MIS 3, MIS 5 and late MIS 7. These IRD are transported by sea ice and icebergs, which were exported to the Beaufort Sea from the M'Clure Strait Ice Stream, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and brought to the Chukchi Basin by the Beaufort Gyre.