Emerging trends in the sea state of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas
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Author
Thomson, Jim
Fan, Yalin
Stammerjohn, Sharon
Stopa, Justin
Rogers, W. Erick
Girard-Ardhuin, Fanny
Ardhuin, Fabrice
Shen, Hayley
Perrie, Will
Shen, Hui
Ackley, Steve
Babanin, Alex
Liu, Qingxiang
Guest, Peter
Maksym, Ted
Wadhams, Peter
Fairall, Chris
Persson, Ola
Doble, Martin
Graber, Hans
Lund, Bjoern
Squire, Vernon
Gemmrich, Johannes
Lehner, Susanne
Holt, Benjamin
Meylan, Mike
Brozena, John
Bidlot, Jean-Raymond
Date
2016Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The sea state of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas is controlled by the wind forcing and the amount of
ice-free water available to generate surface waves. Clear trends in the annual duration of the open
water season and in the extent of the seasonal sea ice minimum suggest that the sea state should be
increasing independent of changes in the wind forcing. Wave model hindcasts from four selected
years spanning recent conditions are consistent with this expectation. In particular, larger waves
are more common in years with less summer sea ice and/or a longer open water season, and peak wave
periods are generally longer. The increase in wave energy may affect both the coastal zones and the
remaining summer ice pack, as well as delay the autumn ice-edge advance. However, trends in the
amount of wave energy impinging on the ice-edge are inconclusive, and the associated processes,
especially in the autumn period of new ice formation, have yet to be well-described by in situ
observations. There is an implicit trend and evidence for increasing wave energy along the coast of
northern Alaska, and this coastal signal is corroborated by satellite altimeter estimates of wave
energy.
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2016.02.009
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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