What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures?
Abstract The emergence of rapid Arctic warming in recent decades has coincided with unusually cold winters over Northern Hemisphere continents. It has been speculated that this “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern is due to sea ice loss. Here we use multiple models to examine whether such a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2016-05-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069024 |
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| _version_ | 1850272515154247680 |
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| author | Lantao Sun Judith Perlwitz Martin Hoerling |
| author_facet | Lantao Sun Judith Perlwitz Martin Hoerling |
| author_sort | Lantao Sun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The emergence of rapid Arctic warming in recent decades has coincided with unusually cold winters over Northern Hemisphere continents. It has been speculated that this “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern is due to sea ice loss. Here we use multiple models to examine whether such a pattern is indeed forced by sea ice loss specifically and by anthropogenic forcing in general. While we show much of Arctic amplification in surface warming to result from sea ice loss, we find that neither sea ice loss nor anthropogenic forcing overall yield trends toward colder continental temperatures. An alternate explanation of the cooling is that it represents a strong articulation of internal atmospheric variability, evidence for which is derived from model data, and physical considerations. Sea ice loss impact on weather variability over the high‐latitude continents is found, however, to be characterized by reduced daily temperature variability and fewer cold extremes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5c1c32e3e8094bc1a637334c78f52b34 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-5c1c32e3e8094bc1a637334c78f52b342025-08-20T01:51:46ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072016-05-0143105345535210.1002/2016GL069024What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures?Lantao Sun0Judith Perlwitz1Martin Hoerling2Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado Boulder Boulder Colorado USACooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado Boulder Boulder Colorado USANOAA Earth System Research Laboratory Physical Sciences Division Boulder Colorado USAAbstract The emergence of rapid Arctic warming in recent decades has coincided with unusually cold winters over Northern Hemisphere continents. It has been speculated that this “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern is due to sea ice loss. Here we use multiple models to examine whether such a pattern is indeed forced by sea ice loss specifically and by anthropogenic forcing in general. While we show much of Arctic amplification in surface warming to result from sea ice loss, we find that neither sea ice loss nor anthropogenic forcing overall yield trends toward colder continental temperatures. An alternate explanation of the cooling is that it represents a strong articulation of internal atmospheric variability, evidence for which is derived from model data, and physical considerations. Sea ice loss impact on weather variability over the high‐latitude continents is found, however, to be characterized by reduced daily temperature variability and fewer cold extremes.https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069024recent Arctic sea ice losswinter temperature trendinternal variability |
| spellingShingle | Lantao Sun Judith Perlwitz Martin Hoerling What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? Geophysical Research Letters recent Arctic sea ice loss winter temperature trend internal variability |
| title | What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? |
| title_full | What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? |
| title_fullStr | What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? |
| title_full_unstemmed | What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? |
| title_short | What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? |
| title_sort | what caused the recent warm arctic cold continents trend pattern in winter temperatures |
| topic | recent Arctic sea ice loss winter temperature trend internal variability |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069024 |
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