Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Wind-driven trends in Antarctic sea-ice drift

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 872–875 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The sea-ice cover around Antarctica has experienced a slight expansion in area over the past decades1,2. This small overall increase is the sum of much larger opposing trends in different sectors that have been proposed to result from changes in atmospheric temperature or wind stress3,4,5, precipitation6,7, ocean temperature8, and atmosphere or ocean feedbacks9,10. However, climate models have failed to reproduce the overall increase in sea ice11. Here we present a data set of satellite-tracked sea-ice motion for the period of 1992–2010 that reveals large and statistically significant trends in Antarctic ice drift, which, in most sectors, can be linked to local winds. We quantify dynamic and thermodynamic processes in the internal ice pack and show that wind-driven changes in ice advection are the dominant driver of ice-concentration trends around much of West Antarctica, whereas wind-driven thermodynamic changes dominate elsewhere. The ice-drift trends also imply large changes in the surface stress that drives the Antarctic ocean gyres, and in the fluxes of heat and salt responsible for the production of Antarctic bottom and intermediate waters.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: April–October 1992–2010 mean ice motion and its relation to wind forcing.
Figure 2: April–October 1992–2010 ice-motion trends and their relation to wind forcing.
Figure 3: Autumn (April–June) 1992–2010 ice motion and concentration trends and their relation to wind forcing.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Zwally, H. J., Comiso, J. C., Parkinson, C. L., Cavalieri, D. J. & Gloersen, P. Variability of Antarctic sea ice 1979–1998. J. Geophys. Res. 107, 3041 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Comiso, J. C. & Nishio, F. Trends in the sea ice cover using enhanced and compatible AMSR-E, SSM/I, and SMMR data. J. Geophys. Res. 113, C02s07 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Liu, J. P., Curry, J. A. & Martinson, D. G. Interpretation of recent Antarctic sea ice variability. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L02205 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Turner, J. et al. Non-annular atmospheric circulation change induced by stratospheric ozone depletion and its role in the recent increase of Antarctic sea ice extent. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L08502 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lefebvre, W. & Goosse, H. Influence of the Southern Annular Mode on the sea ice-ocean system: The role of the thermal and mechanical forcing. Ocean Sci. 1, 145–157 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu, J. P. & Curry, J. A. Accelerated warming of the Southern Ocean and its impacts on the hydrological cycle and sea ice. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 14987–14992 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Manabe, S., Spelman, M. J. & Stouffer, R. J. Transient responses of a coupled ocean atmosphere model to gradual changes of atmospheric CO2. Part II: Seasonal response. J. Clim. 5, 105–126 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jacobs, S. S. & Comiso, J. C. Climate variability in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas. J. Clim. 10, 697–709 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Stammerjohn, S. E., Massom, R., Rind, D. & Martinson, D. G. Regions of rapid sea ice change: An inter-hemispheric seasonal comparison. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L06501 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang, J. L. Increasing Antarctic sea ice under warming atmospheric and oceanic conditions. J. Clim. 20, 2515–2529 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Eisenman, I., Schneider, T., Battisti, D. S. & Bitz, C. M. Consistent changes in the sea ice seasonal cycle in response to global warming. J. Clim. 24, 5325–5335 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Emery, W. J., Fowler, C. W. & Maslanik, J. A. Satellite-derived maps of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice motion: 1988–1994. Geophys. Res. Lett. 24, 897–900 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Heil, P., Fowler, C. W. & Lake, S. E. Antarctic sea-ice velocity as derived from SSM/I imagery. Ann. Glaciol. Ser. 44, 361–366 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kimura, N. Sea ice motion in response to surface wind and ocean current in the Southern Ocean. J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn 82, 1223–1231 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Lefebvre, W., Goosse, H., Timmermann, R. & Fichefet, T. Influence of the Southern Annular Mode on the sea ice-ocean system. J. Geophys. Res. 109, C09005 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Comiso, J. C., Kwok, R., Martin, S. & Gordon, A. L. Variability and trends in sea ice extent and ice production in the Ross Sea. J. Geophys. Res. 116, C04021 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Drucker, R., Martin, S. & Kwok, R. Sea ice production and export from coastal polynyas in the Weddell and Ross Seas. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L17502 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Comiso, J. C. Polar Oceans from Space (Springer, 2010).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Stammerjohn, S. E., Martinson, D. G., Smith, R. C., Yuan, X. & Rind, D. Trends in Antarctic annual sea ice retreat and advance and their relation to El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Southern Annular Mode variability. J. Geophys. Res. 113, C03s90 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kimura, N. & Wakatsuchi, M. Large-scale processes governing the seasonal variability of the Antarctic sea ice. Tellus A 63, 828–840 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. White, W. B. & Peterson, R. G. An Antarctic circumpolar wave in surface pressure, wind, temperature and sea-ice extent. Nature 380, 699–702 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Yuan, X. J. & Li, C. H. Climate modes in southern high latitudes and their impacts on Antarctic sea ice. J. Geophys. Res. 113, C06s91 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Thompson, D. W. J. et al. Signatures of the Antarctic ozone hole in Southern Hemisphere surface climate change. Nature Geosci. 4, 741–749 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jacobs, S. S., Giulivi, C. F. & Mele, P. A. Freshening of the Ross Sea during the late 20th century. Science 297, 386–389 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Meredith, M. P. et al. Synchronous intensification and warming of Antarctic Bottom Water outflow from the Weddell Gyre. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L03603 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Wong, A. P. S., Bindoff, N. L. & Church, J. A. Large-scale freshening of intermediate waters in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Nature 400, 440–443 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kwok, R., Schweiger, A., Rothrock, D. A., Pang, S. & Kottmeier, C. Sea ice motion from satellite passive microwave imagery assessed with ERS SAR and buoy motions. J. Geophys. Res. 103, 8191–8214 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Cavalieri, D. J., Parkinson, C. L., Gloersen, P & Zwally, H. J. Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data, 1992–2010 (National Snow and Ice Data Center, 1996).

  29. Kwok, R. Ross Sea ice motion, area flux, and deformation. J. Clim. 18, 3759–3776 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Crosby, D. S., Breaker, L. C. & Gemmill, W. H. A proposed definition for vector correlation in geophysics—theory and application. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. 10, 355–367 (1993).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Part of this work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

    Paul R. Holland

  2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA

    Ron Kwok

Authors
  1. Paul R. Holland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ron Kwok
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

P.R.H. designed and performed the research and wrote the manuscript. R.K. provided the data and contributed to the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul R. Holland.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 2335 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holland, P., Kwok, R. Wind-driven trends in Antarctic sea-ice drift. Nature Geosci 5, 872–875 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1627

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1627

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene