Abstract
Sea ice export through the Baffin Bay plays a vital role in modulating the sea ice cover variability in the Labrador Sea. In this study, satellite-derived sea ice products are used to obtain the sea ice area flux (SIAF) through the three passages in the Baffin Bay (referred to as A, B, and C for the north, middle, and south passages, respectively). The spatial variability of the monthly sea ice drift in the Baffin Bay is presented. The interannual variability and trends in SIAF via the three passages are outlined. The connection to several large-scale atmospheric circulation modes is assessed. Over the period of 1988–2015, the average annual (October to the following September) SIAF amounts to 555×103 km2, 642×103 km2, and 551×103 km2 through Passages A, B, and C, respectively. These quantities are less than that observed through the Fram Strait (FS, 707×103 km2) of the corresponding period. The positive trends in annual SIAF, on the order of 53.1×103 km2/(10 a) and 43.2×103 km2/(10 a) (significant at the 95% confidence level), are identified at Passages A and B, respectively. The trend of the south passage (C), however, is slightly negative (−13.3×103 km2/(10 a), not statistically significant). The positive trends in annual SIAF through the Passages A and B are primarily attributable to the significant increases after 2000. The connection between the Baffin Bay sea ice export and the North Atlantic Oscillation is not significant over the studied period. By contrast, the association with the cross-gate sea level pressure difference is robust in the Baffin Bay (R equals 0.69 to 0.71, depending on the passages considered), but relatively weaker than that over FS (R=0.74).
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Acknowledgement
We thank the data providers as follows. NSIDC provides the satellite-derived ice motion and concentration data; National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) provides the reanalysis product.
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The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract Nos 2016YFA0600102, 2017YFC1405106, 2016YFC1402707, and 2019YFE0114800; the General Project of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province under contract No. ZR2020MD100; the Key Deployment Project of Centre for Ocean Mega Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under contract No. COMS2020Q12; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 42076185 and 41406215; the Open Fund for the Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. MGE2020KG04; the Key R&D Project of Shandong Province under contract No. 2019GSF111017; the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers under contract No. U1606401.
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Sun, W., Bi, H., Fu, M. et al. Spatiotemporal characteristics of sea ice transport in the Baffin Bay and its association with atmospheric variability. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 40, 1–17 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-021-1720-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-021-1720-7