Arctic wind patterns explain half of the annual variation in the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice, and account for about one-third of the unexpectedly rapid sea-ice decline seen in the past three decades, researchers report.
Masayo Ogi of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Yokohama and her colleagues compared published data on summer and winter winds from 1979 to 2009 with data on September sea-ice extent. They found that certain wind anomalies — such as the summer anticyclonic (clockwise) winds over the Beaufort Sea — correlate with low sea ice. The authors say that these winds may enhance the flow of ice out through the Fram Strait east of Greenland, contributing to ice shrinkage. Their analysis identified an increasing trend in these particular wind patterns.
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Geoscience: Wind-blown ice. Nature 464, 328 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464328a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/464328a
