The Relationship between the Wintertime Blocking over Greenland and the Sea Ice Distribution over North Atlantic

The sea-ice concentration in the Northern Hemisphere, 500 hPa height, sea-level pressure and 1000-500 hPa thickness of monthly mean data are examined for the period 1953-1989, with emphasis on the winter season.Relationships between large-scale patterns of atmospheric variability and sea-ice variability are investigated, making use of the correlation method. The analysis is conducted for the Atlantic sectors. In agreement with earlier studies based upon monthly mean data on sea-ice concentration, the strongest sea-ice pattern is composed of a dipole with opposing centers of action in the Davis Straits / Labrador Sea region and the Greenland and Barents Seas. Its temporal variability is strongly coupled to the atmospheric North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The relation-ship between the two patterns is strongest with the atmosphere leading the ocean. The polarity of the NAO is associ-ated with Greenland blocking episodes, during which the influence of the atmosphere is strong enough to temporarily halt the climatological mean advance of the ice edge in some regions and substantially accelerate it in others.The relationships between the fields are indicative of local forcing of sea-ice in most regions, with wind stress and thermodynamic fluxes at the air-sea interface both contributing.