Analysis of the warmest Arctic winter, 2015–2016
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2016-10-06
Type of Work
Department
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Citation of Original Publication
Cullather, R. I., Lim, Y.-K., Boisvert, L. N., Brucker, L., Lee, J. N., and Nowicki, S. M. J. (2016), Analysis of the warmest Arctic winter, 2015–2016, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 10,808– 10,816, doi:10.1002/2016GL071228.
Rights
This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0
Public Domain Mark 1.0
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Abstract
December through February 2015–2016 defines the warmest winter season over the Arctic in the observational record. Positive 2 m temperature anomalies were focused over regions of reduced sea ice cover in the Kara and Barents Seas and southwestern Alaska. A third region is found over the ice-covered central Arctic Ocean. The period is marked by a strong synoptic pattern which produced melting temperatures in close proximity to the North Pole in late December and anomalous high pressure near the Taymyr Peninsula. Atmospheric teleconnections from the Atlantic contributed to warming over Eurasian high-latitude land surfaces, and El Niño-related teleconnections explain warming over southwestern Alaska and British Columbia, while warm anomalies over the central Arctic are associated with physical processes including the presence of enhanced atmospheric water vapor and an increased downwelling longwave radiative flux. Preconditioning of sea ice conditions by warm temperatures affected the ensuing spring extent.