Rapid Decline of Total Antarctic Sea Ice Extent during 2014–16 Controlled by Wind-Driven Sea Ice Drift

Between 2014 and 2016 the annual mean total extent of Antarctic sea ice decreased by a record, unprecedented amount of 1.6 × 106 km², the largest in a record starting in the late 1970s. The mechanisms behind such a rapid decrease remain unknown. Using the outputs of a high-resolution, global ocean–s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of climate 2019-09, Vol.32 (17), p.5381-5395
Main Authors: Wang, Zhaomin, Turner, John, Wu, Yang, Liu, Chengyan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anomalies
Antarctic sea ice
Drift
Food chains
Ice
Ice drift
Laboratories
Low pressure
Low pressure systems
Ocean surface
Oceanography
Oceans
Sea ice
Sea ice models
Strong winds
Trends
Wind
Wind effects
Winds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Between 2014 and 2016 the annual mean total extent of Antarctic sea ice decreased by a record, unprecedented amount of 1.6 × 106 km², the largest in a record starting in the late 1970s. The mechanisms behind such a rapid decrease remain unknown. Using the outputs of a high-resolution, global ocean–sea ice model we show that the change was predominantly a result of record atmospheric low pressure systems over sectors of the Southern Ocean in 2016, with the associated winds inducing strong sea ice drift. Regions of large positive and negative sea ice extent anomaly were generated by both thermal and dynamic effects of the wind anomalies. Although the strong wind forcing also generated the warmest ocean surface state from April to December 2016, we show that enhanced northward sea ice drift and hence increased melting at lower latitudes driven by strong winds made the dominant contribution to the large decrease in total Antarctic sea ice extent between 2014 and 2016.
ISSN:0894-8755
1520-0442
DOI:10.1175/jcli-d-18-0635.1