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Heavy footprints of upper-ocean eddies on weakened Arctic sea ice in marginal ice zones

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  • Georgy E. Manucharyan

    (University of Washington, School of Oceanography)

  • Andrew F. Thompson

    (Environmental Science and Engineering)

Abstract

Arctic sea ice extent continues to decline at an unprecedented rate that is commonly underestimated by climate projection models. This disagreement may imply biases in the representation of processes that bring heat to the sea ice in these models. Here we reveal interactions between ocean-ice heat fluxes, sea ice cover, and upper-ocean eddies that constitute a positive feedback missing in climate models. Using an eddy-resolving global ocean model, we demonstrate that ocean-ice heat fluxes are predominantly induced by localized and intermittent ocean eddies, filaments, and internal waves that episodically advect warm subsurface waters into the mixed layer where they are in direct contact with sea ice. The energetics of near-surface eddies interacting with sea ice are modulated by frictional dissipation in ice-ocean boundary layers, being dominant under consolidated winter ice but substantially reduced under low-concentrated weak sea ice in marginal ice zones. Our results indicate that Arctic sea ice loss will reduce upper-ocean dissipation, which will produce more energetic eddies and amplified ocean-ice heat exchange. We thus emphasize the need for sea ice-aware parameterizations of eddy-induced ice-ocean heat fluxes in climate models.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgy E. Manucharyan & Andrew F. Thompson, 2022. "Heavy footprints of upper-ocean eddies on weakened Arctic sea ice in marginal ice zones," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-29663-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29663-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jörn Callies & Raffaele Ferrari & Jody M. Klymak & Jonathan Gula, 2015. "Seasonality in submesoscale turbulence," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, November.
    2. Thomas W. K. Armitage & Georgy E. Manucharyan & Alek A. Petty & Ron Kwok & Andrew F. Thompson, 2020. "Enhanced eddy activity in the Beaufort Gyre in response to sea ice loss," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Qinwang Xing & Haiqing Yu & Hui Wang, 2024. "Global mapping and evolution of persistent fronts in Large Marine Ecosystems over the past 40 years," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

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