American Geophysical Union Become an AGU Member
Subscribe to AGU Journals		 AGU Home AGU Publications

Read Full Article (file size: 472724 bytes)    Cited by

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 108, NO. C11, 3343, doi:10.1029/2002JC001623, 2003

Late twentieth century Northern Hemisphere sea-ice record from U.S. National Ice Center ice charts

Kim Partington

Vexcel UK, Newbury, Berkshire, UK


Tom Flynn

Vexcel Corporation, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Doug Lamb

National/Naval Ice Center, Washington, D. C., USA


Cheryl Bertoia

National/Naval Ice Center, Washington, D. C., USA


Kyle Dedrick

National/Naval Ice Center, Washington, D. C., USA


Abstract

Arctic sea ice plays a key role in the climate system, by acting as the interface between a warm ocean and a cold atmosphere. Establishing the true pattern of recent behavior of the sea ice in this region is critical to simulating the role of sea ice in future climate. Recently released operational ice charts from the U.S. National Ice Center provide insight into the late twentieth century behavior of Northern Hemisphere sea ice, providing more reliable ice concentrations during summer and freeze-up than those available from the passive microwave record. The major winter and summer modes of ice concentration variability observed from empirical orthogonal function analysis covering the period 1972–1994 are shown to indicate, respectively, the 1-year lagged response of the sea ice to the North Atlantic Oscillation and the winter preconditioning of summer sea ice coverage in the eastern Arctic by the North Atlantic Oscillation. Feedback to the atmosphere is suggested in each case by zero-lag cyclone frequency relationships to these two sea ice modes of variability.

Received 2 September 2002; accepted 11 August 2003; published 6 November 2003.

Index Terms: 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309); 4215 Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability (3309); 1640 Global Change: Remote sensing; 3349 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Polar meteorology.

Read Full Article (file size: 472724 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Partington, K., T. Flynn, D. Lamb, C. Bertoia, and K. Dedrick (2003), Late twentieth century Northern Hemisphere sea-ice record from U.S. National Ice Center ice charts, J. Geophys. Res., 108(C11), 3343, doi:10.1029/2002JC001623.