Strong Atlantic windstorm caused last year's abrupt Arctic warming: study

By Park Sae-jin Posted : January 5, 2017, 12:47 Updated : January 5, 2017, 12:47

[Courtesy of Science Report]


Enormous warm and moist air masses brought by a strong Atlantic windstorm played a crucial role in an unprecedented Arctic warming a year ago, according to a study conducted by a South Korean research team.

The study from the state-financed Korea Polar Research Institute was published in the January edition of Scientific Report.

In January 2016, the Arctic experienced an "extremely anomalous" warming event. At the time, a strong intrusion of warm and moist air and an increase in downward longwave radiation, as well as a loss of sea ice in the Barents and Kara seas were observed.

"Observational analyses revealed that the abrupt warming was triggered by the entry of a strong Atlantic windstorm into the Arctic in late December 2015, which brought enormous moist and warm air masses to the Arctic," the institute said.

Although the storm terminated at the eastern coast of Greenland in late December, it was followed by a prolonged blocking period in early 2016 that sustained the extreme Arctic warming, it said.

The institute attributed the energy source that drove the windstorm to such an extreme to a combination of an initial pulse of heat that was picked up when it passed over very warm Gulf Stream waters and the strong upper tropospheric zonal winds along the jet stream.

The single event cannot be directly linked to the concept of Arctic amplification, but such an anomalous event in the Arctic may have lingering effects on slow-varying sea ice and ocean, which may contribute to Arctic amplification of a recent warming trend, it said.

Yet, it is not known whether this event is an archetype of what has been happening under the Arctic warming trend, the institute said.
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