Eulerian and Lagrangian views of warm and moist air intrusions into summer Arctic

In this study, warm and moist air intrusions (WaMAI) over the sea sectors of Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Beaufort from 1979 to 2018 are identified in ERA5 reanalysis and their air-mass transformation is analysed using interpolation in ERA5 and satellite products along trajectories. The analysis shows that WaMAIs, driven by blocking high-pressure systems over the respective ocean sectors, induce surface warming (11-18 W m(-2)) and sea ice melt from positive anomalies of net longwave radiation (5-8 W m(-2)) and turbulent flux (8-13 W m(-2)) to the surface, although the anomaly of net shortwave radiation (-9 similar to +1 W m(2)) is negative. From a Lagrangian perspective, the surface energy-budget anomaly decreases linearly, while total column cloud liquid water (TCLW) increases linearly with the downstream distance from the sea-ice edge. However, the cloud radiative effects of both longwave and shortwave radiation reach an equilibrium as TCLW increases in a much lower rate beyond 7 degrees north of the sea ice edge. The boundary-layer energy-budget pattern can be categorized into two classes: radiation-dominated and turbulence-dominated, comprised of 26% and 62% WaMAIs respectively. Statistically, turbulence-dominated cases occur with 3 times stronger large-scale subsidence, and also feature a larger anomaly in net shortwave radiation. In radiation-dominated WaMAIs, stratocumulus develops more strongly and hence exerts larger longwave and shortwave forcing to the surface. In both categories, a well-mixed boundary layer deepens by 500 m along the trajectories, from the continuous turbulent mixing.

Automated summary

This study identifies warm and moist air intrusions over specific sea sectors from 1979 to 2018, and analyzes their impact on surface warming and sea ice melt. The analysis shows that these intrusions induce surface warming and sea ice melt through a variety of energy transfers, despite some negative anomalies in net shortwave radiation.