Meridional Sea-Ice Transport and its Impact on Climate

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Abstract
Sea ice is an important factor in controlling the ocean–atmosphere energy exchange in polar regions, and has an important impact on climate. This is because sea ice insulates the relatively warm ocean from the cold winter atmosphere, and has a higher surface albedo than the ocean. In this study the effect of sea-ice transport on the energy exchange between the atmosphere and ocean, and thus on climate, is examined using a coupled energy-balance climate–thermodynamic sea-ice model. Transport of sea ice produces a thinning of the zonally annually-averaged sea ice in the poleward-most zones, and an extension of the ice edge equatorward. Thinning of the poleward-most ice produces an increase in the annual sensible heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere, which produces an increase in the mean annual atmospheric temperatures. Sensible heat flux is decreased in the zones that contain the ice edge. However, warming in the poleward-most zones produces an increased meridional energy convergence at the ice edge that offsets the decrease in the sensible heat flux to the atmosphere, resulting in a net warming.

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