Item

Abstract

The Arctic has warmed dramatically in recent decades, with the greatest temperature increases observed in the Barents Sea. The Arctic Ocean has become more accessible for marine shipping along the Northern Sea Route, extraction of oil and natural gas resources, and other activities such as tourism, fishing, or planning wind farms. However, all these activities are affected by weather conditions, particularly cyclone activity which impacts extreme sea waves. Understanding the climatology of these storms, including their associated wave climates over both seasonal and long-term periods, is important for being prepared for the related hazards and the long-term impact on coastal infrastructure.We quantified seasonal and regional changes of cyclone activity and its impact on wind-wave characteristics in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropics using ERA5 and Arctic Regional (CARRA-EAST) reanalysis for the winter/summer for the last three decades. The contribution of extra-tropical cyclones to changes in wind-wave activity, particularly in polar latitudes (PL), was assessed. The most significant changes in cyclone activity occur in the PL. In winter/summer, cyclone frequency decreases/increases over the Nordic Seas and increases over the Arctic Ocean. Results showed that the contribution of extra-tropical cyclones to changes in significant wave heights in regions of high cyclone activity reaches 70% in winter and 50% in summer, with the strongest contribution coming from intense cyclones (90%-winter, 40%-summer). It is also assessed the impact of different types of vortices (synoptic and mesoscale) on wind-wave characteristics using the WAVEWATCHIII model simulations forced by wind and sea ice fields derived from the CARRA-EAST.