Our research combines state-of-the-art regional modeling of sea ice, ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem to provide a system approach to advance the knowledge and predictive capability of the diverse impacts of changing sea ice cover on the bio-physical marine environment of coastal Alaska and over the larger region of the western Arctic Ocean. The focus of this project on seasonally ice-free Alaskan coasts and shelves is in direct support of the ...
The main science hypothesis to be addressed in this project can be formulated as follows. The recently observed dramatic decrease of summer sea ice cover in the western Arctic Ocean is driven by two main, primarily local factors: (1) the oceanic heat advection of summer Pacific Water via the Alaska Coastal Current and (2) the positive ice-albedo feedback. To understand physical processes and air-sea-ice interactions involved in these two driving ...
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