155334 - Arctic warming contributes to increase in Northeast Pacific marine.pdf (2.07 MB)
Arctic warming contributes to increase in Northeast Pacific marine heatwave days over the past decades
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 16:23 authored by Song, S-Y, Yeh, S-W, Kim, H, Neil HolbrookNeil HolbrookThe frequency and duration of marine heatwaves have been increasing with ocean warming due to climate change. In particular, the Northeast Pacific has experienced intense and extensive marine heatwaves since the late 1990s – characteristically called “the Blob”. Here, an investigation of satellite-derived and reanalysis data supported by idealized coupled model experiments show that Arctic warming plays an important role in the increase in Northeast Pacific marine heatwave days during boreal summers. Strong Arctic warming has acted to change the atmospheric circulation pattern over the Northeast Pacific and reduce the low-level cloud fraction from late spring to early summer. We show that the enhancement of solar radiative heat fluxes and reduced latent heat loss over a relatively large area has favored an increase in sea surface temperatures and marine heatwave days. An idealized model experiment performed here, designed to isolate the impact of Arctic warming, supports this hypothesis. The projected changes of Arctic climate on the occurrence of marine heatwaves should be considered in climate change adaptation and mitigation plans.
History
Publication title
Communications Earth & EnvironmentVolume
4Article number
25Number
25Pagination
1-9ISSN
2662-4435Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic StudiesPublisher
Nature Publishing GroupPlace of publication
United KingdomRights statement
© 2023 The Author(s). Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Repository Status
- Open