Stormy weather in the Arctic may have unanticipated effects on global warming, according to a new study by NASA. Researchers were looking to confirm a theory that a warming climate could cause an increase in storminess. They now believe it may be possible that new sinks for carbon dioxide may emerge from the relationship between sea ice drift and increasingly turbulent weather.

 NASA researcher Sirpa Hakkinen of Goddard Space Flight Center and her colleagues from other institutions analyzed 56 years of storm-track data and found an accelerating trend in storm activity in the Arctic from 1950 to 2006. They also found evidence that the pace of sea ice movement along the Arctic Ocean’s Transpolar Drift Stream from Siberia to the Atlantic Ocean accelerated in both summer and winter during the 55-year period. Because the surface wind is known to be the driving force behind the movement of sea ice, they concluded that the increase in storminess and the sea ice drift speeds are linked.

This linkage has great implications for predictions of global climate change and the computer models used by scientists. Hakkinen points out that her group has provided proof that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between storm activity and sea ice movement.

The moving sea ice forces the ocean to move, which sets off more mixing of the upper layers of the ocean than would occur without the push from the ice. The increased mixing of the ocean layer forces a greater degree of ocean convection and instability. Globally, oceans absorb about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide carried by the atmosphere. According to the new findings by Hakkinen and her colleagues, the Arctic’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide could climb.

 “Although it remains to be seen how this may ultimately play out in the future, the likelihood this increasing trend and link between storminess and ice drift could expand the Arctic’s role as a sink for extracting fossil fuel-generated carbon dioxide from the air is simply fascinating,” said Hakkinen. “If it unfolds in the way we suppose, this scenario could, of course, affect the whole climate system and its evolution.”

 Find more on sea ice and climate change in Issue Five (Water, Ice, and Snow) and Issue Seven (Energy and the Polar Environment) of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears.