Abstract
Arctic sea ice has been declining over past several decades with the largest ice loss occurring in summer. This implies a strengthening of the sea ice seasonal cycle. Here, we examine global ocean salinity response to such changes of Arctic sea ice using simulations wherein we impose a radiative heat imbalance at the sea ice surface, inducing a sea ice decline comparable to the observed. The imposed perturbation leads to enhanced seasonal melting and a rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice within the first 5–10 years. We then observe a gradual freshening of the upper Arctic ocean that continues for about a century. The freshening is most pronounced within the central Arctic, including the Beaufort gyre, and is attributed to excess surface freshwater associated with the stronger seasonal sea ice melting, as well as a greater upper-ocean freshwater storage due to changes in ocean circulation. The freshening of the Nordic Seas can also occur via a distillation-like process in which denser saline waters with increased salinity are exported to the subtropical/tropical North Atlantic by meridional overturning circulation. Thus, enhanced seasonal sea ice melting in a warmer climate can lead to a persistent Arctic freshening with large impacts on the global salinity distribution.
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Data availability
The observational record for sea ice area provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is available at https://nsidc.org/data/NSIDC-0051/versions/1.
Materials availability
Sea ice volume from Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) can be accessed at http://psc.apl.uw.edu/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/data/.
Code availability
Additional model data and code can be requested from the authors.
Change history
02 August 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06433-8
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Wei Liu (University of California Riverside) for making available the model output for analysis. Support from the Yale University High Performance Computing center is also acknowledged.
Funding
This study is supported by grants from NSF (OCE-1756682, OPP-1741847), the ARCHNGE project of the “Make our planet great again” program (CNRS, France), and the Guggenheim fellowship to AVF. H. Li is supported by the Regional and Global Climate Modeling Program (RGCM) of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological & Environmental Research (BER) via National Science Foundation IA 1844590.
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HL performed the calculations and analysis as well as produced the Figures. Both authors discussed the results and contributed to writing the manuscript. AV Fedorov directed this work with contributions from HL.
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Li, H., Fedorov, A.V. Persistent freshening of the Arctic Ocean and changes in the North Atlantic salinity caused by Arctic sea ice decline. Clim Dyn 57, 2995–3013 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05850-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05850-5