Increasing solar heating of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, 1979–2005: Attribution and role in the ice-albedo feedback

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Read Full Article (file size: 191421 bytes) Cited by GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L19505, doi:10.1029/2007GL031480, 2007 Increasing solar heating of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, 1979–2005: Attribution and role in the ice-albedo feedback Donald K. Perovich Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA Bonnie Light Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, Washington, USA Hajo Eicken Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA Kathleen F. Jones Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA Kay Runciman Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, Washington, USA Son V. Nghiem Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA Abstract Over the past few decades the Arctic sea ice cover has decreased in areal extent. This has altered the solar radiation forcing on the Arctic atmosphere-ice-ocean system by decreasing the surface albedo and allowing more solar heating of the upper ocean. This study addresses how the amount of solar energy absorbed in areas of open water in the Arctic Basin has varied spatially and temporally over the past few decades. A synthetic approach was taken, combining satellite-derived ice concentrations, incident irradiances determined from reanalysis products, and field observations of ocean albedo over the Arctic Ocean and the adjacent seas. Results indicate an increase in the solar energy deposited in the upper ocean over the past few decades in 89% of the region studied. The largest increases in total yearly solar heat input, as much as 4% per year, occurred in the Chukchi Sea and adjacent areas. Received 26 July 2007; accepted 12 September 2007; published 11 October 2007. Keywords: sea ice; ice albedo feedback; solar heating. Index Terms: 0750 Cryosphere: Sea ice (4540); 0764 Cryosphere: Energy balance; 1621 Global Change: Cryospheric change (0776). Read Full Article (file size: 191421 bytes) Cited by Citation: Perovich, D. K., B. Light, H. Eicken, K. F. Jones, K. Runciman, and S. V. Nghiem (2007), Increasing solar heating of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, 1979–2005: Attribution and role in the ice-albedo feedback, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L19505, doi:10.1029/2007GL031480. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

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