Midlatitude atmospheric responses to Arctic sensible heat flux anomalies in Community Climate Model, Version 4

Possible linkages between Arctic sea ice loss and midlatitude weather are strongly debated in the literature. We analyze a coupled model simulation to assess the possibility of Arctic ice variability forcing a midlatitude response, ensuring consistency between atmosphere, ocean, and ice components. We work with weekly running mean daily sensible heat fluxes with the self‐organizing map technique to identify Arctic sensible heat flux anomaly patterns and the associated atmospheric response, without the need of metrics to define the Arctic forcing or measure the midlatitude response. We find that low‐level warm anomalies during autumn can build planetary wave patterns that propagate downstream into the midlatitudes, creating robust surface cold anomalies in the eastern United States. Self‐organizing maps capture downstream atmospheric responses associated with Arctic SHF patterns without use of regional metricsArctic sensible heat fluxes produce low‐level warming that builds and modulates eastward propagating planetary wavesRobust near‐surface temperature anomalies in the United States last approximately 2 weeks