Fig. 2: Important role of radiation fluxes in linking atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean.
From: Recent upper Arctic Ocean warming expedited by summertime atmospheric processes
Correlations of 1979–2018 ERA5 reanalysis JJA net downward heat flux (Qnet) field with three time series, i.e., a SON domain-average upper (0–50 m average) ocean temperature, b September sea ice area (SIA; average over 70°–90°N, 0–360°, the sign of SIA is reversed for simplicity of comparison with plots a, c), and c JJA domain-average tropospheric (surface to 300 hPa average) air temperature. d Domain-average time series for JJA Qnet (Wm−2), SON upper ocean temperature (°C), September SIA (million km2, the sign of SIA is reversed), and JJA tropospheric air temperature (°C) from 1979 to 2018. e Linear trends (Wm−2 per decade) of JJA domain-averages of Qnet, downwelling longwave radiation (DLR), upwelling longwave radiation (ULR), downwelling shortwave radiation (DSR), upwelling shortwave radiation (USR), sensible heat flux (SHF), and latent heat flux (LHF) from the ERA5 reanalysis (1979–2018). All radiative flux variables are positive downward. Correlations of JJA domain-average Qnet with JJA domain-averages of DLR, ULR, DSR, USR, SHF, and LHF in the ERA5 reanalysis for the period 1979–2018 are shown in bold next to the y-axis. All linear trends are removed in calculating the correlations in a–c and e. Black stippling in all plots indicates statistically significant correlations at the 95% confidence level.
