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On the Link Between Arctic Sea Ice Decline and the Freshwater Content of the Beaufort Gyre: Insights from a Simple Process Model

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On the Link Between Arctic Sea Ice Decline and the Freshwater Content of the Beaufort Gyre: Insights from a Simple Process Model 8170 JOURNAL OF CLIMATE VOLUME 27 On the Link between Arctic Sea Ice Decline and the Freshwater Content of the Beaufort Gyre: Insights from a Simple Process Model PETER E. D. DAVIS,CAMILLE LIQUE, AND HELEN L. JOHNSON Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (Manuscript received 30 January 2014, in final form 1 August 2014) ABSTRACT Recent satellite and hydrographic observations have shown that the rate of freshwater accumulation in the Beaufort Gyre of the Arctic Ocean has accelerated over the past decade. This acceleration has coincided with the dramatic decline observed in Arctic sea ice cover, which is expected to modify the efficiency of momentum transfer into the upper ocean. Here, a simple process model is used to investigate the dynamical response of the Beaufort Gyre to the changing efficiency of momentum transfer, and its link with the enhanced accu- mulation of freshwater. A linear relationship is found between the annual mean momentum flux and the amount of freshwater accumulated in the Beaufort Gyre. In the model, both the response time scale and the total quantity of freshwater accumulated are determined by a balance between Ekman pumping and an eddy- induced volume flux toward the boundary, highlighting the importance of eddies in the adjustment of the Arctic Ocean to a change in forcing. When the seasonal cycle in the efficiency of momentum transfer is modified (but the annual mean momentum flux is held constant), it has no effect on the accumulation of freshwater, although it does impact the timing and amplitude of the annual cycle in Beaufort Gyre freshwater content. This suggests that the decline in Arctic sea ice cover may have an impact on the magnitude and seasonality of the freshwater export into the North Atlantic. 1. Introduction et al. 1988; Aagaard and Carmack 1989; Vellinga and Wood 2002; Jones and Anderson 2008). The Arctic Ocean receives an input of freshwater from Within the Arctic Ocean itself, more than 70 000 km3 Eurasian and North American river runoff, net pre- of freshwater is stored within a very fresh surface layer cipitation over evaporation (positive P 2 E), and sea ice (Aagaard and Carmack 1989; Serreze et al. 2006; Fig. 1), melt. The Atlantic contributes relatively salty water via which is separated by a strong halocline from the rela- Fram Strait and the Barents Sea, and the Pacific relatively tively warm and saline Atlantic-derived layer beneath freshwater via Bering Strait. After significant watermass (Aagaard et al. 1981). Over the past few decades, ob- transformation, freshwater is exported in both liquid and servations have shown that the freshwater content has solid (ice) form into the Nordic and Labrador Seas, been increasing (Proshutinsky et al. 2009; McPhee et al. through Fram Strait and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, 2009; Rabe et al. 2011; Krishfield et al. 2014), with the respectively.(Coachman and Aagaard 1974; Aagaard and largest freshening observed in the Beaufort Gyre in the Carmack 1989; Carmack 2000; Serreze et al. 2006; Dickson Canada Basin (Fig. 1). Recently, Giles et al. (2012) have et al. 2007). A moderate freshening of the surface waters in suggested that the rate of freshening in the Beaufort these exit regions may impact the formation of North Gyre may be accelerating, and have proposed that Atlantic Deep Water, and thus affect both the global a dynamical adjustment in response to the decline in thermohaline circulation and the global climate (Dickson Arctic sea ice cover may be the cause. Understanding this dynamical response is the focus of this study. The Beaufort Gyre is a permanent anticyclonic circu- lation driven by the winds associated with the atmo- Corresponding author address: Peter Davis, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 spheric Beaufort high (Proshutinsky et al. 2009). These 3AN, United Kingdom. winds cause water to converge in the center of the gyre, E-mail: [email protected] and the resulting downwelling (Ekman pumping) leads to DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00090.1 Ó 2014 American Meteorological Society Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/28/21 01:47 PM UTC 1NOVEMBER 2014 D A V I S E T A L . 8171 the Beaufort Gyre has gained 8400 6 2000 km3 of freshwater between the periods 1992–99 and 2006–08, and Giles et al. (2012) used satellite observations of sea surface height between 1995 and 2012 to infer a similar increase of 8000 6 2000 km3. The results of Giles et al. (2012) show a clear spatial correlation between the positive trend in the sea surface height associated with the Beaufort Gyre, and the nega- tive trend in the curl of the wind field (i.e., a trend toward more anticyclonic winds). However, despite this clear spatial correlation, the temporal correlation is less clear. While the trend in the curl of the wind field remained constant over the whole period, the trend in the sea sur- face height changed sign after 2002. Consequently, Giles et al. (2012) have suggested that since 2002 the winds may FIG. 1. Climatology of Arctic freshwater content integrated have become more effective at driving an accumulation vertically from the surface to the depth of the 34.8 isohaline from of freshwater within the Beaufort Gyre, because of an the PHC (Steele et al. 2001). The Beaufort Gyre region as defined by Proshutinsky et al. (2009) and Giles et al. (2012) is highlighted increase in the efficiency of momentum transfer into the by the black box, and clearly stands out as the region of greatest upper ocean. On the other hand, Morison et al. (2012) freshwater content in the Arctic. argue that a shift in the advection pathways of Eurasian river water, associated with a positive phase of the Arctic an accumulation of freshwater through the mechanical Oscillation during 2005–08, can account for the increased deformation of the salinity field (Proshutinsky et al. 2002; accumulation of freshwater, with no role played by the Yang 2009; Proshutinsky et al. 2009). On annual time Beaufort Gyre wind-driven circulation. In reality, it is scales, stronger anticyclonic winds in winter result in an likely that both processes are important (Mauritzen accumulation of freshwater, whereas weaker (or possibly 2012). cyclonic) winds in summer relax the salinity gradient re- In the absence of sea ice, the magnitude of the mo- sulting in a release of freshwater (Proshutinsky et al. mentum transfer into the upper ocean (i.e., the ocean 2002). In addition, ice growth in winter and melt in surface stress) is determined simply by the surface wind summer will decrease or increase the freshwater content stress. However, in the partly ice-covered Arctic, the of the Beaufort Gyre respectively, and any changes in the magnitude of the momentum transfer is determined by advection of surface Pacific and Atlantic waters are also both the surface wind stress (tAir-Water) and an ice- likely to have an impact (Proshutinsky et al. 2009). water stress component (tIce-Water), with their relative Consequently, the mean annual cycle in freshwater con- magnitudes scaled by the ice concentration (a; Yang tent reflects the complex interplay among several differ- 2009): ent forcings. t 5 at 1 2 a t On interannual time scales, Proshutinsky and Johnson OceanSurface Ice-Water (1 ) Air-Water . (1) (1997) and Proshutinsky et al. (2002) have suggested that two different wind regimes exist within the Arctic: In the past, the thick and extensive Arctic sea ice cover cyclonic and anticyclonic. During the anticyclonic re- has acted to reduce the momentum transfer, due to the gime, freshwater is accumulated within the Beaufort large internal ice stresses reducing the ice-water stress Gyre over several years because of a strengthened at- component, and shielding of the ocean from direct wind mospheric Beaufort high. In contrast, during the cy- forcing. However, as the sea ice cover has begun to break clonic regime the atmospheric Beaufort high weakens, up and retreat farther and for longer each year (Stroeve and freshwater is released to the shelves where it may be et al. 2007; Maslanik et al. 2007; Cavalieri and Parkinson exported into the North Atlantic. As a result, there is 2012), it has become both weaker and thinner (Kwok and a strong linear relationship between the freshwater Rothrock 2009; Zhang et al. 2012; Laxon et al. 2013), and content of the Beaufort Gyre and the wind stress curl on the number of leads, melt ponds, and ice floe edges has interannual time scales (Proshutinsky et al. 2002, 2009). increased, changing the shape of the ice pack (Flocco Since 1997, the Arctic has been in the longest anticy- et al. 2012; Tsamados et al. 2014). Consequently, the ef- clonic regime on record, leading to a large excess accu- ficiency of momentum transfer into the upper ocean has mulation of freshwater within the Beaufort Gyre. Using increased, as a thinner and weaker sea ice cover is more hydrographic data, Rabe et al. (2011) have shown that easily forced by the winds, and the changing shape of the Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/28/21 01:47 PM UTC 8172 JOURNAL OF CLIMATE VOLUME 27 ice pack is providing more and more near-vertical faces investigate the dynamical response of the Beaufort Gyre for the wind to push against (Andreas et al. 2010). As to the changing efficiency of momentum transfer, and its a result, not only is the annual mean ocean surface stress link to the accelerated accumulation of freshwater, by (tOceanSurface) increasing (i.e., the net forcing), but its idealistically perturbing the annual cycle in ocean sur- seasonality is also changing. For example, Martin et al. face stress through a wide parameter space.
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