Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere–Ice Response to Variations in the Southern Annular Mode

Abstract The coupled ocean–atmosphere–ice response to variations in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is examined in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Coupled Climate Model (version 2). The model shows considerable skill in capturing the predominantly zonally symmetric SAM while regional deviations between model and observation SAM winds go a long way in explaining the generally small differences between simulated and observed SAM responses in the ocean and sea ice systems. Vacillations in the position and strength of the circumpolar winds and the ensuing variations in advection of heat and moisture result in a dynamic and thermodynamic forcing of the ocean and sea ice. Both meridional and zonal components of ocean circulation are modified through Ekman transport, which in turn leads to anomalous surface convergences and divergences that strongly affect the meridional overturning circulation and potentially the pathways of intermediate water ventilation. A heat budget analysis demonstrates a conspiring of oceanic meridional heat advection, surface heat fluxes, and changes in mixed layer depth, which acts in phase to imprint a strong circumpolar SAM signature onto sea surface temperatures (SSTs), while other oceanic processes, including vertical advection, are shown to play only a minor role in contrast to previous suggestions. Lagged correlations show that although the SAM is mainly controlled by internal atmospheric mechanisms, the thermal inertia of the ocean reimprints the SAM signature back onto surface air temperatures (SATs) on time scales longer than the initial atmospheric signal. Sea ice variability is well explained by a combination of atmospheric and oceanic dynamic and thermodynamic forcing, and by an albedo feedback mechanism that allows ice extent anomalies to persist for many months. Nonzonally symmetric components of the SAM winds, particularly in the region surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula, have important effects for other climate variables.