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

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

SUBMITTER: Manucharyan GE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9021234 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature