The Influence of Sea Ice on Ocean Heat Uptake in Response to Increasing CO2

Abstract

Two significant changes in ocean heat uptake that occur in the vicinity of sea ice cover in response to increasing CO2 are investigated with Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3): a deep warming below ∼500 m and extending down several kilometers in the Southern Ocean and warming in a ∼200-m layer just below the surface in the Arctic Ocean. Ocean heat uptake caused by sea ice retreat is isolated by running the model with the sea ice albedo reduced artificially alone. This integration has a climate response with strong ocean heat uptake in the Southern Ocean and modest ocean heat uptake in the subsurface Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean warming results from enhanced ocean heat transport from the northern North Atlantic. At the time of CO2 doubling, about 1/3 of the heat transport anomaly results from advection of anomalously warm water and 2/3 results from strengthened inflow. At the same time the overturning circulation is strengthened in the northern North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Wind stress changes cannot explain the circulation changes, which instead appear related to strengthened convection along the Siberian shelves. Deep ocean warming in the Southern Ocean is initiated by weakened convection, which is mainly a result of surface freshening through altered sea ice and ocean freshwater transport. Below about 500 m, changes in convection reduce the vertical and meridional temperature gradients in the Southern Ocean, which significantly reduce isopycnal diffusion of heat upward around Antarctica. The geometry of the sea ice cover and its influence on convection have a strong influence on ocean temperature gradients, making sea ice an important player in deep ocean heat uptake in the Southern Ocean.