Journal article
Climate links and recent extremes in antarctic sea ice, high-latitude cyclones, Southern Annular Mode and ENSO
AB Pezza, HA Rashid, I Simmonds
Climate Dynamics | SPRINGER | Published : 2012
Abstract
In this article, we study the climate link between the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the southern sea-ice extent (SIE), and discuss the possible role of stationary waves and synoptic eddies in establishing this link. In doing so, we have used a combination of techniques involving spatial correlations of SIE, eddy streamfunction and wind anomalies, and statistics of high-latitude cyclone strength. It is suggested that stationary waves may be amplified by eddy anomalies associated with high latitude cyclones, resulting in more sea ice when the SAM is in its positive phase for most, but not all, longitudes. A similar association is observed during ENSO (La Niña years). Although this synergy i..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council and the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee for funding parts of this work. We thank Drs. Matthew Wheeler, James Screen and Petteri Uotila for invaluable comments on an early version of this manuscript. We also thank the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and Dr. Phil Reid for making their data and analyses publicly available. Comments by two anonymous reviewers contributed to further improve this text.