Investigation of processes operating at the transition to ice-free conditions: a study with a global climate model
Abstract
The environmental impacts of a shrinking Arctic sea ice cover are explored with a coupled climate model, CCSM3.0, via simulations in which atmospheric carbon dioxide is increased by 1% per year until stabilization at 8xCO2. The transitions to seasonally ice-free conditions and year-around ice-free conditions are investigated and compared against each other. The reversibility of ice loss is explored with two simulations: a first one for which pre-industrial atmospheric carbon dioxide is instantaneously reestablished, and a second one with a gradual decrease. The role of different feedbacks on the evolution of ice cover and its recovery after complete removal is analyzed. Among those feedbacks, special focus is given to cloud feedbacks, albedo feedbacks and changes in ocean circulation and Arctic ocean stratification.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFM.C41B0523V
- Keywords:
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- 0738 Ice (1863);
- 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks;
- 4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes (0700;
- 0750;
- 0752;
- 0754);
- 4572 Upper ocean and mixed layer processes;
- 4908 Albedo