Collaborative Research: Impact of Storm Activity on Recent Changes in Arctic Sea Ice Mass Balance

This project is to investigate impacts of changes in storm track dynamics on the recent rapid reduction in Arctic sea ice extent and volume. The increase of storm intensity and frequency result in enhanced high-frequency synoptic-scale variations and feedbacks in the Arctic climate system, and may make an integrative contribution to the basin-wide sea ice reduction. The project studies build upon previous work, and combine model simulations with satellite products and in situ observations to integrate and delineate physical causes of sea-ice mass balance changes in the context of storm-induced air-ice-sea interactions. This research will bridge synoptic-scale weather activities and large-scale climate variability and changes. The expected outcome includes assembled schematics linking storm-induced synoptic-scale variation with recently observed rapid loss of Arctic sea ice mass. Changes in sea ice concentration/extent, thickness/volume, and heat budget terms at the air-ice-sea interface that follow the motion of identified storms will be compiled.本项目旨在探究风暴路径动力学（storm track dynamics）变化对近期北极海冰范围与体积快速缩减的影响。风暴强度与频次的提升会加剧北极气候系统内的高频天气尺度（synoptic-scale）变率与反馈过程，或对全海盆尺度的海冰缩减产生综合贡献。本项目研究立足于既往工作基础，将模式模拟、卫星遥感产品与原位（in situ）观测相结合，在风暴诱发的海-冰-气相互作用（air-ice-sea interactions）框架下，整合并阐明海冰质量平衡变化的物理成因。本研究将架起天气尺度天气活动与大尺度气候变率及变化之间的桥梁。预期研究成果包括汇编得到的示意图，用以关联风暴诱发的天气尺度变率与近期观测到的北极海冰质量快速损耗现象；研究还将汇编与已识别风暴移动路径相对应的海冰浓度/范围、厚度/体积，以及海-冰-气界面（air-ice-sea interface）热收支项的变化数据。