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Record-breaking Barents Sea ice loss favors to the unprecedented summertime extreme heatwave in 2021 over western North America by enhancing Rossby wave ridge

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Abstract

A record-setting extreme heatwave occurred over western North America (WNA) in the summer of 2021, which was associated with an extreme atmospheric Rossby wave ridge (ARR) over WNA and a minimum record event of the preceding winter Barents Sea ice concentration. We identify the remote effect and investigate how the Barents Sea ice loss (BSIL) in the preceding winter relates to the intensity of the ARR and extreme heatwaves in the following June and July (JJ) by analyzing the reanalysis data. Our results suggest that the atmospheric wave activity flux associated with the BSIL transferred wave energy towards the circumglobal teleconnection (CGT)-like wave trains, increasing the wave amplitude and enhancing the ARR over WNA. The anomalous sea ice melting in JJ, originating from the BSIL in the preceding winter through ocean-air-sea ice positive feedback processes, also induces a northward shift of jet stream by meridional temperature gradient change. The weakening of the local jet from the original jet axis area drives anticyclonic anomalies which increases atmospheric subsidence and shortwave radiation. The energy is transferred from the weakened jet to synoptic-scale disturbances via wave-current interaction. The northward jet as a waveguide causes the CGT to shift northward and receive signals from the higher latitude. Both the CGT-like wave trains and the shifted jet streams synergistically contribute to the increase of ARR intensity and the frequency of extreme heatwaves. Overall, the BSIL will serve as an early predictor for properly forecasting the extreme heatwaves over WNA six months in advance, which potentially improves the prediction skills.

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Availability of data and material

The daily and monthly mean NCEP-NCAR reanalysis II data can be downloaded from https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis2.html. The monthly mean SIC data can be obtained at https://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0051/versions/2. The RMM index sourced from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology data server, accessible at http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/mjo/. The CMIP6 outputs are obtained from https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/search/cmip6/. The CESM-LE model outputs are available from https://www.earthsystemgrid.org/dataset/ucar.cgd.ccsm4.cesmLE.atm.proc.monthly_ave.html.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions have helped us to improve the overall quality of the manuscript. We acknowledge the NCEP and NSIDC for producing and making available their datasets. The authors also acknowledge the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) web for providing CMIP6 project datasets and the CESM-LE project for providing model outputs.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFA0607004), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Projects (42006017, 42075024, 42075025), and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019ZD12), Taishan Pandeng Scholar Project.

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  1. Frontier Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System (FDOMES) and Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography/Academy of Future Ocean, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao, 266100, People’s Republic of China

    Yuying Wei, Fei Huang & Zheng Chen

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Wei, Y., Huang, F. & Chen, Z. Record-breaking Barents Sea ice loss favors to the unprecedented summertime extreme heatwave in 2021 over western North America by enhancing Rossby wave ridge. Clim Dyn (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-024-07168-4

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