The Influence of heat transport on Arctic amplification

The Arctic surface air temperature has warmed nearly twice as much as the global mean since the mid-20th century. Arctic sea ice has also been declining rapidly in recent decades. There is still discussion about how much of this Arctic amplification is caused by local factors, such as changes in surface albedo, versus remote factors, such as changes in heat transport from the midlatitudes. This thesis focuses mainly on the role of poleward heat transport on Arctic amplification. Most of the previous studies on this topic have defined ocean heat transport as the zonally averaged ocean heat transport at 65°N or 70°N, which ignores the physical pathways of heat into the Arctic and may include recirculation of heat in the North Atlantic. In this thesis, we define the ocean heat transport as the heat transport across five sections surrounding the Arctic, to create a closed domain in the Arctic.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Fleming, Laura Elizabeth.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Young-Oh Kwon.

• Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering.
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122324

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122324