Li, L., A. J. Miller, J. L. McClean, I. Eisenman and M. C. Hendershott,
2014:
Processes driving sea ice variability in the Bering Sea in an eddying
ocean/sea ice model: Anomalies from the mean seasonal cycle
Ocean Dynamics, 64, 1693-1717.
Abstract.
A fine-resolution (1/10 deg) ocean/sea ice model configured in the Community
Earth System Model framework is compared with observations and studied to determine
the basin-scale and local balances controlling the variability of sea ice anomalies from the
mean seasonal cycle in the Bering Sea for the time period 1980-1989. The model
produces variations in total Bering Sea ice area anomalies that are highly correlated with
observations. Surface air temperature, which is specified from reanalysis atmospheric
forcing, strongly controls the ice volume variability in this simulation. The
thermodynamic ice volume change is dominated by surface energy flux via atmosphere-ice
sensible heat flux, except near the southern ice edge where it is largely controlled by
ocean-ice heat flux. While thermodynamic processes dominate the variations in ice
volume in the Bering Sea on the large scale, dynamic processes are important on the local
scale near ice margins (both oceanic and land), where dynamic and thermodynamic ice
volume changes have opposite signs and nearly cancel each other. Ice motion is generally
consistent with winds driving the flow, except near certain straits in the north where ice
motion largely follows ocean currents. Two key climate events, strong ice growth with
cold air temperature and northerly wind in Feb 1984 and weak ice growth with warm air
temperature and southerly wind in Feb 1989, are studied here in detail. While the
processes controlling the ice changes are generally similar to those in other years, these
large events help reveal the characteristic spatial patterns of ice growth/melt and transport
anomalies.
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