The winter midlatitude-Arctic interaction: effects of North Atlantic SST and high-latitude blocking on Arctic sea ice and Eurasian cooling

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of Eurasian circulation patterns such as high-latitude European blocking (HEB) and Ural blocking (UB) events on winter sea-ice concentration (SIC) in the Barents–Kara seas (BKS) and Eurasian cooling is examined to differentiate the different roles of HEB and UB in association with positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO + ) events. A particular focus is on the SIC variability resulting from the effect of sea surface temperature (SST) near the Gulf Stream Extension (GSE) region through to the position change of Eurasian blocking. It is found that the SST shows a dipole pattern with a positive (negative) anomaly to the south (north) of the GSE, while the high SST in..