Synoptic controls of extreme ice area flux events along Nares Strait

Le résumé fourni par la source

Nares Strait, the channel between Ellesmere Island and northwest Greenland, connects the Arctic Ocean’s Lincoln Sea to northern Baffin Bay and onwards to the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean. The transport of thick, multi-year sea ice southward down the Strait contributes to the overall loss of this important ice class from the Arctic as well as contributing to the salinity budget of the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean. Using sea ice motion derived from synthetic aperture radar imagery, we characterize the variability and extremes in ice transport across a flux gate situated at its northern terminus. Although the mean transport is approximately 300 km2/day southwards, we observe frequent, large, and short-lived reversals during which the ice is transported northwards into the Lincoln Sea with extreme events exceeding 590 km2/day. Here, we characterize the synoptic conditions associated with extreme ice transport events along the Strait. Extreme southward transport events exceeding 1070 km2/day are associated with a synoptic-scale environment characterized by higher sea-level pressures over the Arctic Ocean and lower sea-level pressures over Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea. The newly identified northward transport events are associated with a reversal in the pressure gradient as well as a pan-Arctic reversal in ice motion.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.