Severe winter weather as a response to the lowest Arctic sea-ice anomalies

• Published in: Acta oceanologica Sinica Vol. 32; no. 10; pp. 11 - 15
• Main Authors: Chen, Hongxia, Liu, Na, Zhang, Zhanhai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2013; Springer Nature B.V; Key Laboratory of Marine Science and Numerical Modeling, First Institute of 0ceanography, State 0ceanic Administration, Qingdao 266061, China%Key Laboratory for Polar Science, Polar Research Institute of China, State 0ceanic Administration, Shanghai 200136, China
• Subjects: Air temperature; Anomalies; Atmospheric circulation; Climatology; Cold; Drought; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Environmental Chemistry; General circulation models; Heat; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Ice; Ice conditions; Investigations; Marine; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; Oceanography; Sea ice; Severe weather; Simulation; Snow; Snowstorms; Storms; Summer; Surface temperature; Water vapor; Weather; Winter; 东西伯利亚; 中国南部; 北极海冰; 大气环流模型; 恶劣天气; 楚科奇海; 模型显示; 海冰异常; East Asia; Arctic region; China; PNW, Beaufort Sea; PNE, Barents Sea; INE, Chukchi Sea; PN, Arctic; China, People's Rep; PNE, Kara Sea; Russia, Siberia; ISW, Bangladesh, Bengal Bay; Arctic sea ice; severe winter weather; ECHAM5.4 atmospheric general circulationmodel; ECHAM5.4 atmospheric general circulation model
• ISSN: 0253-505X; 1869-1099
• DOI: 10.1007/s13131-013-0360-y

Possible impact of reduced Arctic sea-ice on winter severe weather in China is investigated regarding the snowstorm over southern China in January 2008. The sea-ice conditions in the summer （July-September） and fall （September-November） of 2007 show that the sea-ice is the lowest that year. During the summer and fall of 2007, sea ice displayed a significant decrease in the East Siberian, the northern Chukchi Sea, the western Beaufort Sea, the Barents Sea, and the Kara Sea. A ECHAM5.4 atmospheric general circula- tion model is forced with realistic sea-ice conditions and strong thermal responses with warmer surface air temperature and higher-than-normal heat flux associated with the sea-ice anomalies are found. The model shows remote atmospheric responses over East Asia in January 2008, which result in severe snowstorm over southern China. Strong water-vapor transported from the Bay of Bengal and from the Pacific Ocean related to Arctic sea-ice anomalies in the fall （instead of summer） of 2007 is considered as one of the main causes of the snowstorm formation.