Response of Influence of Internal and External Factors in the Latitudinal Sea Ice Edge Displacement in the Arctic Basin

Abstract

Inter-annual climatic response of the sea ice edge latitudinal displacement in the Arctic to variability of the large-scale atmospheric circulation (the Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation), location of the Gulf Stream northern boundary and solar activity in 1969–2012 is studied. It is noted that the most significant ice edge latitudinal displacements in the intra-annual cycle were observed westward of Novaya Zemlya and in the Bering Strait area. It is shown that, depending on the longitudinal sector, response of the edge geographical position to changes of the atmospheric circulation and the Gulf Stream indices can be manifested both quasi-synchronously and with a delay. Exceptions are the Greenland Sea and the Norwegian Sea areas as well as the Barents Sea western part where ice edge displacements advance the Gulf Stream index variation. The correlation between the edge latitudinal displacement along its perimeter and the Wolf numbers variation is assessed. It is received that the oscillations of cross-correlation functions with a period which is close to 11-year one (Schwabe Cycle) are observed on each longitude at that. In the variations of cross-correlation functions from their average position, solar activity variation is manifested in the edge position displacement with up to two-year delay.

Keywords

• Arctic
• sea ice
• sea ice edge
• dynamics of edge position