Analysis of Principal Components of the Sea Ice Concentration Fields in the Barents Sea

Abstract

The processes of interaction within the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere system which influence a multiyear ice cover dynamics in the Barents Sea are investigated. Being analyzed, the principal components of the sea ice concentration fields in the Barents Sea make it possible to distinguish three modes of inter-annual variability of the sea ice concentration. It is shown that the first mode describes 65.4 % of the sea ice concentration total variance and its multiyear trend. The second mode (10.8 %) is related to the variations of the heat inflow due to the sea currents governed by the atmospheric circulation. The third one (7.8 %) is associated with variability of the total turbulent heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere at the boundary of the ice edge in the northern Barents Sea.

Keywords

• Barents Sea
• sea ice concentration
• inter-annual variability
• total turbulent heat flux
• currents
• wind