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In the spring period of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, an initiative was in place to increase the radiosounding frequency during warm air intrusions in the Atlantic Arctic sector. Two episodes with increased surface temperatures were captured during April 12-22, 2020, during a targeted observing period (TOP). The large-scale circulation efficiently guided the pulses of warm air into the Arctic and the observed surface temperature increased from-30 & DEG;C to near melting conditions marking the transition to spring, as the temperatures did not return to values below-20 & DEG;C. Back-trajectory analysis identifies 3 pathways for the transport. For the first temperature maximum, the circulation guided the airmass over the Atlantic to the northern Norwegian coast and then to the MOSAiC site.The second pathway was from the south, and it passed over the Greenland ice sheet and arrived at the observational site as a warm but dry airmass due to precipitation on the windward side. The third pathway was along the Greenland coast and the arriving airmass was both warm and moist. The back trajectories originating from pressure levels between 700 and 900 hPa line up vertically, which is somewhat surprising in this dynamically active environment. The processes acting along the trajectory originating from 800 hPa at the MOSAIC site are analyzed. Vertical profiles and surface energy exchange are presented to depict the airmass transformation based on ERA5 reanalysis fields. The TOP could be used for model evaluation and Lagrangian model studies to improve the representation of the small-scale physical processes that are important for airmass transformation. A comparison between MOSAiC observations and ERA5 reanalysis demonstrates challenges in the representation of small-scale processes, such as turbulence and the contributions to various terms of the surface energy budget, that are often misrepresented in num

The Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) Final Summit What: One hundred eighty-seven scientists, stakeholders, and representatives from operational forecasting centers and international bodies assembled in person and online to review the accomplishments and impacts of YOPP and make recommendations on prediction-related priorities for future international polar research projects. Where: Montreal, Canada When: 29 August-1 September 2022.

In wintertime over the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean (SPNA), the strongest surface sensible and latent heat fluxes typically occur just downstream of the sea-ice edge. The recent retreat in Arctic wintertime sea ice is changing the distribution of these turbulent heat fluxes, with consequences for the formation of the dense waters that feed into the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Projections of turbulent heat flux over the SPNA are investigated using output from the HadGEM3-GC3.1 climate model, produced as part of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Inter-Comparison Project. Comparison of two model resolutions (MM: 60 km atmosphere—1/4° ocean and HH: 25 km–1/12°) shows that the HH configuration more accurately simulates historic sea ice and turbulent heat flux distributions. The MM configuration tends to produce too much sea ice in the SPNA, affecting the turbulent heat flux distribution; however, it displays improved performance during winters with less sea ice, increasing confidence in future projections when less sea ice is predicted. Future projections are presented for low (SSP1-2.6) and high (SSP5-8.5) emissions pathways. The simulations agree in predicting that, with climate change, the SPNA will see reductions in wintertime sea ice and air-sea turbulent fluxes later in the 21st century, particularly in the Labrador and Irminger Seas and the interior of the Nordic Seas, and a notable reduction in their decadal variability. These effects are more severe under the SSP5-8.5 pathway. The implications for SPNA ocean circulation are discussed.

Marine cold air outbreaks are vigorous equatorward excursions of cold air over the ocean, responsible for the majority of wintertime oceanic heat loss from the subpolar seas of the North Atlantic. However, the impact of individual cold air outbreak (CAO) events on the ocean is poorly understood. Here we present the first coupled observations of the atmosphere and ocean during a wintertime CAO event, between 28 February and 13 March 2018, in the subpolar North Atlantic region. Comprehensive observations are presented from five aircraft flights, a research vessel, a meteorological buoy, a subsurface mooring, an ocean glider, and an Argo float. The CAO event starts abruptly with substantial changes in temperature, humidity, and wind throughout the atmospheric boundary layer. The CAO is well-mixed vertically and, away from the sea-ice edge, relatively homogeneous spatially. During the CAO peak, higher sensible heat fluxes occupy at least the lowest 200 m of the atmospheric boundary layer, while higher latent heat fluxes are confined to the surface layer. The response of the ocean to the CAO is spatially dependent. In the interior of the Iceland Sea the mixed layer cools, while in the boundary current region it warms. In both locations, the mixed layer deepens and becomes more saline. Combining our observations with one-dimensional mixed-layer modelling, we show that in the interior of the Iceland Sea, atmospheric forcing dominates the ocean response. In contrast, in the boundary current region lateral advection and mixing counteract the short-term impact of the atmospheric forcing. Time series observations of the late-winter period illustrate a highly variable ocean mixed layer, with lateral advection and mixing often masking the ocean's general cooling and deepening response to individual CAO events.

A major source of uncertainty in both climate projections and seasonal forecasting of sea ice is inadequate representation of surface–atmosphere exchange processes. The observations needed to improve understanding and reduce uncertainty in surface exchange parameterizations are challenging to make and rare. Here we present a large dataset of ship-based measurements of surface momentum exchange (surface drag) in the vicinity of sea ice from the Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE) in July–October 2014, and the Arctic Ocean 2016 experiment (AO2016) in August–September 2016. The combined dataset provides an extensive record of momentum flux over a wide range of surface conditions spanning the late summer melt and early autumn freeze-up periods, and a wide range of atmospheric stabilities. Surface exchange coefficients are estimated from in situ eddy covariance measurements. The local sea-ice fraction is determined via automated processing of imagery from ship-mounted cameras. The surface drag coefficient, CD10n, peaks at local ice fractions of 0.6–0.8, consistent with both recent aircraft-based observations and theory. Two state-of-the-art parameterizations have been tuned to our observations, with both providing excellent fits to the measurements.

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Opher, J., Brearley, J., Dye, S., Pickart, R., Renfrew, I., Harden, B., & Meredith, M. The annual salinity cycle of the Denmark Strait Overflow. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 127(4), (2022): e2021JC018139, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021jc018139., The Denmark Strait Overflow (DSO) is an important source of dense water input to the deep limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). It is fed by separate currents from the north that advect dense water masses formed in the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean which then converge at Denmark Strait. Here we identify an annual salinity cycle of the DSO, characterized by freshening in winter and spring. The freshening is linked to freshening of the Shelfbreak East Greenland Current in the Blosseville Basin north of the Denmark Strait. We demonstrate that the East Greenland Current advects fresh pycnocline water above the recirculating Atlantic Water, which forms a low salinity lid for the overflow in Denmark Strait and in the Irminger Basin. This concept is supported by intensified freshening of the DSO in lighter density classes on the Greenland side of the overflow. The salinity of the DSO in the Irminger Basin is significantly correlated with northerly/northeasterly winds in the Blosseville Basin at a lag of 3–4 months, consistent with estimated transit times. This suggests that wind driven variability of DSO source water exerts an important influence on the salinity variability of the downstream DSO, and hence the composition of the deep limb of the AMOC., This research was funded by: NERC EnvEast DTP studentship NE/L002582 (JO) and Cefas Seedcorn DP371 (JO, SRD); as well as by NERC, by AFIS (NE/N009754/1) (IR), JAB is funded by NE/L011166/1, ORCHESTRA (NE/N018095/1) and ENCORE (NE/V013254/1) and RP is funded by the US National Science Foundation grants OCE-1756361 and OCE-1558742. Cefas work on the Angmagssallik array was supported by multiple international partners including NSF, NOAA-CORC-ARCHES, WHOI-OCCI, European Community's fifth & seventh framework programme under grants ASOF-W (contract EVK2-CT-2002-00,149) & No. GA212643 (THOR: “Thermohaline Overturning—at Risk”, 2008–2012) and from UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) including A1222, SD0440 & ME5102.

Aircraft observations from two Arctic field campaigns are used to derive ice surface characteristics and make recommendations for the parametrisation of surface heat and moisture exchange over sea ice and the marginal ice zone (MIZ). The observations were gathered in the Barents Sea and Fram Strait as part of the Aerosol–Cloud Coupling And Climate Interactions in the Arctic (ACCACIA) project, and off the south-east coast of Greenland as part of the Iceland-Greenland Seas Project (IGP). Estimates of roughness lengths for momentum (z0), heat (z0T) and moisture (z0q) are derived from turbulent wind velocity, temperature and humidity measurements; while sea ice concentration is derived from albedo measurements. The two data sets cover a range of sea ice characteristics, being much rougher in general during IGP than during ACCACIA. Large fluxes of heat and moisture were observed in the vicinity of the MIZ during both field campaigns. We show that z0T and z0q over 100 % sea ice (z0Ti and z0qi) vary as a function of a roughness Reynolds number (R*; which itself is a function of z0 and wind stress), with a peak at the transition between the aerodynamically smooth (R*<0.135) and aerodynamically rough (R*>2.5) regimes. One of the few theory-based parameterisations available for z0Ti and z0qi (that of Andreas et al., 1987) reproduces these peaks, in contrast to the simple treatments currently employed in two leading numerical weather and climate prediction models – the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM) and the Integrated Forecast System (IFS) – which do not. The MetUM and IFS schemes perform adequately in smooth conditions, but greatly overestimate heat and moisture exchange in rough conditions. We develop a new parameterisation for heat and moisture exchange as a function of sea ice concentration, which blends the Andreas et al. (1987) scheme over sea ice with exchange over the ocean. This new parameterisation performs much better than the current MetUM and IFS schemes for the