Potential effects of the projected Antarctic sea-ice loss on the climate system

• Published in: Climate dynamics Vol. 60; no. 1-2; pp. 589 - 601
• Main Authors: Tewari, Kamal, Mishra, Saroj Kanta, Salunke, Popat, Ozawa, Hisashi, Dewan, Anupam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ablation; Antarctic sea ice; Atmospheric circulation; Atmospheric circulation changes; Atmospheric models; Climate; Climate change; Climate models; Climate system; Climatology; Cloud cover; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Energy transport; Environmental aspects; Evaporation; Geophysics/Geodesy; Global warming; Hadley cells; Katabatic winds; Oceanography; Polar environments; Precipitation (Meteorology); Radiation; Reduction; Sea ice; Short wave radiation; Simulation; Southern Hemisphere; Surface temperature; Surface-ice melting; Transport; Antarctica; Climate change; Antarctica; Sea-ice loss; General circulation; Climate modeling
• ISSN: 0930-7575; 1432-0894
• DOI: 10.1007/s00382-022-06320-2

Climate models project that a reduction in the Antarctic sea-ice extent due to global warming in the future would exert an influential role on the climate system. However, due to the coupled nature of the climate system and various feedbacks present, the underlying mechanism is not well understood. The present study attempts to investigate the potential effects of the model projected Antarctic sea-ice loss on the climate system and understand the underlying mechanism causing such changes using coupled model simulations. The investigation suggests that the projected sea-ice loss will result in the localized surface warming accompanied with tropospheric warming that will be experienced globally. The surface evaporation will enhance, accompanied by an increase in the precipitation and cloud cover around Antarctica’s coastal periphery, with marginal changes observed over the continent’s interiors. The strength of the atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere will change significantly, resulting in an enhancement in the Polar cell and katabatic flow accompanied by a marginal reduction in the Ferrel and Hadley cells, causing an equatorial shift in the jet’s position. The eddy transport will also significantly weaken, leading to an overall reduction in the poleward energy transport at higher latitudes. These atmospheric circulation changes are essentially driven by the radiative budget, with more absorbed short-wave radiation reducing the poleward transport requirements. Compared to the reported uncoupled simulations studies, the remote global influence of sea ice loss noted in these coupled simulations which extends up to the Arctic highlights the strong pole-to-pole connections in the climate system through atmospheric and oceanic circulations.