skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Major Artifacts in ERA5 2‐m Air Temperature Trends Over Antarctica Prior to and During the Modern Satellite Era
Abstract Global reanalyzes are widely used for investigations of Antarctic climate variability and change. The European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts 5th generation reanalysis (ERA5) is well regarded and spans 1940 to today. We investigate whether ERA5 reliably represents the 2‐m air temperature trends across the 1940–2022 (83 years) period at seasonal and annual time scales. We compare ERA5 temperatures with an observation‐based temperature reconstruction for Antarctica (RECON) that has monthly resolution for 1958–2022, the period of reliable observational availability. Results for individual stations are also examined. ERA5 anomalously warms Antarctica in relation RECON especially for the period prior to 1979 when satellite observations over the Southern Ocean were sparse. Trend hotspots that are shown to be artifacts are found at three locations and are present until today. The results demonstrate that ERA5 temperature trends can be questionable even today, but variability is well captured after 1979.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2331992
PAR ID:
10595791
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Geophysical Union
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume:
51
Issue:
21
ISSN:
0094-8276
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Journal of Climate)
    Abstract High latitudes, including the Bering Sea, are experiencing unprecedented rates of change. Long-term Bering Sea warming trends have been identified, and marine heatwaves (MHWs), event-scale elevated sea surface temperature (SST) extremes, have also increased in frequency and longevity in recent years. Recent work has shown that variability in air–sea coupling plays a dominant role in driving Bering Sea upper-ocean thermal variability and that surface forcing has driven an increase in the occurrence of positive ocean temperature anomalies since 2010. In this work, we characterize the drivers of the anomalous surface air–sea heat fluxes in the Bering Sea over the period 2010–22 using ERA5 fields. We show that the surface turbulent heat flux dominates the net surface heat flux variability from September to April and is primarily a result of near-surface air temperature and specific humidity anomalies. The airmass anomalies that account for the majority of the turbulent heat flux variability are a function of wind direction, with southerly (northerly) wind advecting anomalously warm (cool), moist (dry) air over the Bering Sea, resulting in positive (negative) surface turbulent flux anomalies. During the remaining months of the year, anomalies in the surface radiative fluxes account for the majority of the net surface heat flux variability and are a result of anomalous cloud coverage, anomalous lower-tropospheric virtual temperature, and sea ice coverage variability. Our results indicate that atmospheric variability drives much of the Bering Sea upper-ocean temperature variability through the mediation of the surface heat fluxes during the analysis period. Significance StatementA long-term ocean warming trend and a recent increase in marine heatwaves in the Bering Sea have been identified. Previous work showed that anomalies in the exchange of heat between the ocean and the atmosphere were the primary driver of Bering Sea temperature variability, but the processes responsible for the heat exchange anomalies were unknown. In this work, we show that the atmosphere is the primary driver of anomalies in the Bering Sea air–sea heat exchange and therefore plays an important role in altering the thermal state of the Bering Sea. Our results highlight the importance of understanding more about how the ocean and the atmosphere interact at high latitudes and how this relationship will be affected by future climate change. 
    more » « less
  2. ; (, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology)
    Abstract We present a tracking algorithm for synoptic to meso- α -scale Arctic cyclones that differentiates between cold- and warm-core systems. The algorithm is applied to the ERA5 reanalysis north of 60°N from 1950 to 2019. In this dataset, over one-half of the cyclones that meet minimum intensity and duration thresholds can be classified as cold-core systems. Systems that undergo transition, typically from cold to warm core, make up 27.2% of cyclones and are longer lived. The relatively infrequent warm-core cyclones are more intense and are most common in winter. The Arctic-wide occurrence of maritime cyclones has increased from 1979 to 2019 when compared with the period from 1950 to 1978, but the trends have high interannual variability. This shift has ramifications for transportation, fisheries, and extractive industries, as well as impacts on communities across the Arctic. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Climate of the Past)
    High-resolution, well-dated climate archives provide an opportunity to investigate the dynamic interactions of climate patterns relevant for future projections. Here, we present data from a new, annually dated ice core record from the eastern Ross Sea, named the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core. Comparison of this record with climate reanalysis data for the 1979–2012 interval shows that RICE reliably captures temperature and snow precipitation variability in the region. Trends over the past 2700 years in RICE are shown to be distinct from those in West Antarctica and the western Ross Sea captured by other ice cores. For most of this interval, the eastern Ross Sea was warming (or showing isotopic enrichment for other reasons), with increased snow accumulation and perhaps decreased sea ice concentration. However, West Antarctica cooled and the western Ross Sea showed no significant isotope temperature trend. This pattern here is referred to as the Ross Sea Dipole. Notably, during the Little Ice Age, West Antarctica and the western Ross Sea experienced colder than average temperatures, while the eastern Ross Sea underwent a period of warming or increased isotopic enrichment. From the 17th century onwards, this dipole relationship changed. All three regions show current warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea but increasing in the western Ross Sea. We interpret this pattern as reflecting an increase in sea ice in the eastern Ross Sea with perhaps the establishment of a modern Roosevelt Island polynya as a local moisture source for RICE. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Climate)
    Abstract Elevated mixed layers (EMLs) influence the severe convective storm climatology in the contiguous United States (CONUS), playing an important role in the initiation, sustenance, and suppression of storms. This study creates a high-resolution climatology of the EML to analyze variability and potential changes in EML frequency and characteristics for the first time. An objective algorithm is applied to ERA5 to detect EMLs, defined in part as layers of steep lapse rates (≥8.0°C km−1) at least 200 hPa thick, in the CONUS and northern Mexico from 1979 to 2021. EMLs are most frequent over the Great Plains in spring and summer, with a standard deviation of 4–10 EML days per year highlighting sizable interannual variability. Mean convective inhibition associated with the EML’s capping inversion suggests many EMLs prohibit convection, although—like nearly all EML characteristics—there is considerable spread and notable seasonal variability. In the High Plains, statistically significant increases in EML days (4–5 more days per decade) coincide with warmer EML bases and steeper EML lapse rates, driven by warming and drying in the low levels of the western CONUS during the study period. Additionally, increases in EML base temperatures result in significantly more EML-related convective inhibition over the Great Plains, which may continue to have implications for convective storm frequency, intensity, severe perils, and precipitation if this trend persists. Significance StatementElevated mixed layers (EMLs) play a role in the spatiotemporal frequency of severe convective storms and precipitation across the contiguous United States and northern Mexico. This research creates a detailed EML climatology from a modern reanalysis dataset to uncover patterns and potential changes in EML frequency and associated meteorological characteristics. EMLs are most common over the Great Plains in spring and summer, but show significant variability year-to-year. Robust increases in the number of days with EMLs have occurred since 1979 across the High Plains. Lapse rates associated with EMLs have trended steeper, in part due to warmer EML base temperatures. This has resulted in increasing EML convective inhibition, which has important implications for regional climate. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Environmental Research Letters)
    Abstract The observed winter Barents-Kara Sea (BKS) sea ice concentration (SIC) has shown a close association with the second empirical orthogonal function (EOF) mode of Eurasian winter surface air temperature (SAT) variability, known as Warm Arctic Cold Eurasia (WACE) pattern. However, the potential role of BKS SIC on this WACE pattern of variability and on its long-term trend remains elusive. Here, we show that from 1979 to 2022, the winter BKS SIC and WACE association is most prominent and statistically significant for the variability at the sub-decadal time scale for 5–6 years. We also show the critical role of the multi-decadal trend in the principal component of the WACE mode of variability for explaining the overall Eurasian winter temperature trend over the same period. Furthermore, a large multi-model ensemble of atmosphere-only experiments from 1979 to 2014, with and without the observed Arctic SIC forcing, suggests that the BKS SIC variations induce this observed sub-decadal variability and the multi-decadal trend in the WACE. Additionally, we analyse the model simulated first or the leading EOF mode of Eurasian winter SAT variability, which in observations, closely relates to the Arctic Oscillation (AO). We find a weaker association of this mode to AO and a statistically significant positive trend in our ensemble simulation, opposite to that found in observation. This contrasting nature reflects excessive hemispheric warming in the models, partly contributed by the modelled Arctic Sea ice loss. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Text Encoded Conversion
  • XML
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email