Thermodynamic processes of a system involving a floe and a small lead in the central Arctic were investigated during the ice-camp period of the third Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition from 20 to 28 August, 2008. The measurements included surface air temperatures above the floe, spectral albedo of the lead, seawater temperatures in the lead and under the ice cover, and the lateral and bottom mass balance of the floe. The surface air temperature at 1.15 m remained below 0~Cthroughout the observation period and sea ice had commenced its annual cycle of growth in response to autumn cooling during the study. The surface of the lead was frozen by 23 August, after which the spectral albedo of the thin-ice-covered lead in the band of 320-950 nm was 0.46 -0.03, the seawater temperatures both in the lead and under the ice cover, as well as the vertical seawater-temperature gradient in the lead decreased gradually, and the oceanic heat under the ice was maintained at a low level approaching 0 W/m2. By the end of the measurement, the thickness of the investigated floe had reached its annual minimum, while the lateral of the floe was still in the melting phase, with a mean melting rate of 1.0±0.3 cm/d during the measurement, responding to an equivalent latent heat flux of 21 ±6 W/m2. The lateral melting of the floe had made a more significant contribution to the sea-ice mass balance than the surface and bottom melting in the end of August.
Atmospheric and oceanic drag are the main environmental forces controlling sea ice drift. Oceanic drag includes the form drag generated by water pressure gradients on the side of ice floes or on ice ridges, and the skin friction generated by viscous flow on the bottom of ice floes. In this study, we carried out a two-dimensional numerical simulation using FLUENT software to investigate the characteristics of dynamic flow under ice with a smooth undersurface. We studied water drag and flow field distribution below the ice under different conditions of ice draft and flow velocity, and the results agreed well with data from laboratory-based physical modeling tests, demonstrating the ability of the numerical model to reproduce the dynamic interactions between sea ice and the flow field. The degree of distortion in the flow field caused by ice increased as the ice draft increased. Vortexes occurred in the wake field of the floe, and the centers of the vortexes moved away from the ice with increasing ice draft. The simulated drag of water on ice showed a clear linear relationship with the square of the flow velocity.
Associations between the autumn Arctic sea ice concentrations (SICs) and North American winter precipitation were examined using singular value decomposition. The results show that a reduced SIC in the majority of the Arctic is accompanied by dry conditions over the Great Plains, the southern United States, Mexico, eastern Alaska, and southeastern Greenland, and by wet conditions over the majority of Canada, the northeastern United States, and the majority of Greenland. Atmospheric circulation anomalies associated with the SIC variability show a wave train structure that is persistent from autumn to winter and is responsible for the covariability between the autumn Arctic SICs and North American winter precipitation. This relationship suggests a potential long-term outlook for the North American winter precipitation.
SONG Mi-RongLIU Ji-PingLIU Hai-LongREN Xiao-BoWANG Xiu-Cheng
In this study, the trends in latent and sensible heat fluxes (LHF and SHF) over the Southern Ocean (oceans south of 35?S) and the contributions of the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO), the Pacific-South America teleconnection patterns (PSA1 and PSA2) and The El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to these heat fluxes were investigated using the Objectively Analyzed Air-Sea Fluxes (OAFlux) dataset from 1979 to 2008. Significant positive annual trends in LHF occur over the Agulhas Current, the Brazil Current, the oceans in the vicinity of New Zealand and southern Australia, and the eastern Pacific Ocean near between 35?S and 40?S. Significant negative seasonal trends occur in LHF which differ among the four seasons. The spatial pattern and seasonal variation of the trends in SHF over the Southern Ocean are similar to those of LHF. The spatial patterns of the trends in LHF and SHF caused by the AAO, PSA1, PSA2 and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) indices show a wave-like feature, varying with different seasons, that can be explained by the anomalous meridional wind associated with the four indices. The above four indices account for a small portion of the trend in LHF and SHF. The residual trends in LHF over the Southern Ocean may be explained by a climate shift in the late 1990s for the four seasons. But the residual trends in SHF over the Southern Ocean are not associated with the climate shift.
