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PUBLIC SUMMARY
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The rate of wintertime Arctic amplification shows a slowdown in recent decades.
The rate of wintertime Arctic sea ice loss exhibits a deceleration in recent decades.
The attenuation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation decelerates winter Arctic sea ice loss.
The Barents and Kara Seas play an important role in the slowed rate of wintertime Arctic amplification.
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ABSTRACT
A significant climate phenomenon “Arctic amplification” emerged during the late twentieth century, wherein the Arctic warming is faster than the rest of the world. However, recent episodes of the decreased rate of Arctic sea ice loss may bring prominent alterations to this uneven warming trend. Here, we re-evaluate the warming pattern, revealing an obvious slowdown of winter Arctic amplification since 2012, which probably contributes to the recent reversal in the winter surface wind speed in boreal midlatitudes. This slowdown may be attributed to the clearly slowed Arctic sea ice loss, especially in the Barents and Kara Seas, which is modulated by the weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Our findings emphasize the urgent need for a more intensive analysis of the recent Arctic warming trend and its consequences for the broader Earth system. -
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Luo N., Li J., Xiao C., et al. (2025). Slowdown of wintertime Arctic amplification since 2012. The Innovation Geoscience 3:100130. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2024.100130
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Luo N., Li J., Xiao C., et al. (2025). Slowdown of wintertime Arctic amplification since 2012. The Innovation Geoscience 3:100130. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2024.100130
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Figure 1.
Temporal evolution of winter surface temperature anomalies
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Figure 2.
The trends of Arctic amplification and global mean surface temperature during winter
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Figure 3.
Surface temperature trend pattern and zonally averaged surface temperature trend during winter
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Figure 4.
Observed surface wind speed trend pattern and zonally averaged surface wind speed trends during winter
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Figure 5.
The trends of surface temperature, Arctic sea ice loss, AMOC strength and Arctic amplification during winter
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Figure 6.
Spatial distributions of winter sea surface temperature trend
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Figure 7.
Seasonal and annual mean Arctic sea ice loss rates
