Estimating winter turbulent heat fluxes over the North Water Polynya and surrounding sea ice using ERA5 and ASRv2 reanalysis data (2005–2016)

Haiyi, Ren and Shokr, Mohammed and Fengming, Hui and Guangjun, He and Han, Fu and Binxiao, Liu and Xiao, Cheng (2025) Estimating winter turbulent heat fluxes over the North Water Polynya and surrounding sea ice using ERA5 and ASRv2 reanalysis data (2005–2016). Advances in Polar Science, 36 (3). pp. 229-245.

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Abstract

The North Water Polynya (NOW) is one of the largest and most productive polynyas in the Arctic. Compared to the surrounding sea ice, the combination of high winds and cold air, together with the thin ice or open water surface of the NOW, produces large turbulent heat fluxes (THFs). The accurate estimation of these parameters requires high-resolution atmospheric data, which can be provided by the reanalysis products from different sources. In this study, we calculated the winter latent heat flux (LHF) and sensible heat flux (SHF) over the NOW and its surrounding sea ice area from 2005/2006 to 2015/2016 using high-resolution (15 km) Arctic System Reanalysis version 2 (ASRv2) data and low-resolution (30 km) European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ERA5 data. Results show that the LHF/SHF over the surrounding sea ice is about 82%/88% lower than over the NOW, as estimated using either dataset. Furthermore, within each area, the difference in the THFs estimated from the two datasets is small. The spatial distribution of the LHF/SHF estimated from both data sources is similar to that of sea ice concentration. The average LHF/SHF in the polynya obtained using ASRv2 data is only 5%/7% higher than that from the values obtained using ERA5 data. This is because the wind speed and air temperature from the ASRv2 data are higher than those of ERA5, and their effects on the THFs can cancel each other out. Furthermore, the estimated THFs do not necessarily improve with the refined resolution of ASRv2.

Item Type:	Article
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Keywords:	North Water Polynya, turbulent heat fluxes, ASRv2, ERA5
Subjects:	Natural Environment > Oceans
Organizations:	Advances in Polar Science (APS)
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2025 12:35
URI:	https://library.arcticportal.org/id/eprint/2908

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