Memory effects of Eurasian land processes cause enhanced cooling in response to sea ice loss

Amplified Arctic warming and its relevance to mid-latitude cooling in winter have been intensively studied. Observational evidence has shown strong connections between decreasing sea ice and cooling over the Siberian/East Asian regions. However, the robustness of such connections remains a matter of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2019-11, Vol.10 (1), p.5111-8, Article 5111
Main Authors: Nakamura, Tetsu, Yamazaki, Koji, Sato, Tomonori, Ukita, Jinro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
119/118
704/106
704/106/125
704/106/35/823
704/106/694
Amplification
Anomalies
Cooling
Cooling effects
General circulation models
Humanities and Social Sciences
Ice
Ice environments
Latitude
multidisciplinary
Polar environments
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sea ice
Soil temperature
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Summary:Amplified Arctic warming and its relevance to mid-latitude cooling in winter have been intensively studied. Observational evidence has shown strong connections between decreasing sea ice and cooling over the Siberian/East Asian regions. However, the robustness of such connections remains a matter of discussion because modeling studies have shown divergent and controversial results. Here, we report a set of general circulation model experiments specifically designed to extract memory effects of land processes that can amplify sea ice–climate impacts. The results show that sea ice–induced cooling anomalies over the Eurasian continent are memorized in the snow amount and soil temperature fields, and they reemerge in the following winters to enhance negative Arctic Oscillation-like anomalies. The contribution from this memory effect is similar in magnitude to the direct effect of sea ice loss. The results emphasize the essential role of land processes in understanding and evaluating the Arctic–mid-latitude climate linkage. The connection between Arctic sea ice loss and mid-latitude cooling in Eurasia has been widely debated. Here, model experiments reveal that the persistence of sea ice loss-related snow and soil temperature anomalies in Eurasia may lead to further cooling in the following winters.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-13124-2