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Air-Ice-Ocean Coupling During a Strong Mid-Winter Cyclone, Part 1: Observing Coupled Dynamic Interactions Across Scales
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  • Daniel Mark Watkins,
  • Ola Persson,
  • Timothy Peter Stanton,
  • Amy B. Solomon,
  • Jennifer Katy Hutchings,
  • Jari Haapala,
  • Gunilla Svensson
Daniel Mark Watkins
Brown University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Ola Persson
University of Colorado Boulder
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Timothy Peter Stanton
Naval Postgraduate School
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Amy B. Solomon
University of Colorado/CIRES and NOAA/ESRL
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Jennifer Katy Hutchings
Oregon State University
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Jari Haapala
Finnish Meteorological Institute
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Gunilla Svensson
Department of Meteorology
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Abstract

Arctic cyclones are key drivers of sea ice and ocean variability. During the 2019-2020 Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, joint observations of the coupled air-ice-ocean system were collected at multiple spatial scales. Here, we present observations of a pair of strong mid-winter cyclones that impacted the MOSAiC site as it drifted in the central Arctic pack ice, with analytic emphasis on the second cyclone. The sea ice dynamical response showed spatial structure at the scale of the evolving atmospheric wind field. Internal ice stress and the ocean stress play significant roles, resulting in timing offsets between the atmospheric forcing and the ice response and post-cyclone inertial ringing in the ice and ocean. A structured response of sea ice motion and deformation to cyclone passage is seen, and the consequent ice motion then forces the upper ocean currents through frictional drag. The strongest impacts to the sea ice and ocean from the passing cyclone occur as a result of the surface impacts of a strong atmospheric low-level jet (LLJ) behind the trailing cold front. Impacts of the cyclone are prolonged through the coupled ice-ocean inertial response. The local impacts of the approximately 120 km wide LLJ occur over a 12 hour period or less and at scales of a kilometer to a few tens of kilometers, meaning that these impacts occur at smaller spatial scales and faster time scales than many satellite observations and coupled Earth system models can resolve.
01 Mar 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
05 Mar 2024Published in ESS Open Archive