Understanding local and large-scale changes in the Arctic and the effect on Cyclone activity

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe, with a concurrent rapid loss of sea ice extent and thickness. Cyclones are synoptic weather events that transport heat and moisture into the Arctic, and have complex impacts on sea ice, marine ecosystems, and socio-economic activities. However, the effect of a changing climate on Arctic cyclone behavior remains poorly understood. This study uses a combination of reanalysis data, cyclone tracking techniques, and high-resolution numerical modeling to explore the effect of recent and future climate change on Arctic cyclone behavior across seasons.

This work first examines the relative importance of changes in local surface conditions and turbulent fluxes and broader changes in pressure patterns, steering flow, and baroclinicity with recent climate change in governing cyclone frequency, intensity, and trajectories. Our analysis suggests that cyclone activity is shifting throughout the autumn with competing effects of turbulent fluxes and large-scale conditions. With recent climate change, sea ice is declining, and surface temperatures and turbulent fluxes are increasing, resulting in slight increases in Autumn cyclone intensity. In early autumn, cyclone frequency and trajectories are strongly governed by the large-scale flow despite increases in surface turbulent fluxes and baroclinicity. By late autumn, land-sea temperature contrast is increasing with sea ice loss, and changes in baroclinicity and large-scale flow work in concert to increase cyclone activity in the Arctic.

This work then uses regional, high resolution, convection-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations to demonstrate the sensitivity of cyclone characteristics to recent and future climate change. Simulations with downscaled CMIP6 global climate projections reveal that future sea ice loss and increasing surface temperatures by the year 2100 drive large increases in the near-surface vertical temperature gradient, sensible and latent heat fluxes into the atmosphere, and deep convection during spring cyclone events. The changes in the future (warmer) climate alter cyclone trajectories and increase and prolong intensity, with significantly increased wind speeds, temperatures, and precipitation. Such changes in cyclone lifecycles and characteristics may exacerbate sea ice loss and Arctic warming through positive feedback mechanisms. The increasing extreme nature of weather events such as Arctic cyclones has important implications for atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions in the new Arctic.