The Barents Sea is one of the most rapidly changing Arctic regions in terms of sea ice. As it is almost ice-free in summer, most recent changes in the Barents Sea have occurred in winter, with a reduction of about 50% of its March sea-ice area between 1979 and 2018. This sea-ice loss is clearly linked to an increase in the Atlantic Ocean heat transport, especially through the Barents Sea Opening, in the western part of the Barents Sea. In this study, we investigate the links between the March Barents sea-ice area and ocean heat transport at the Barents Sea Opening using seven different coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models, with at least two different horizontal resolutions for each model. These models follow the High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project protocol, and we focus on the historical record (1950–2014). We find that all models capture the anticorrelation between March sea-ice area and annual mean ocean heat transport in the Barents Sea. Furthermore, the use of an increased ocean resolution allows to better resolve the different ocean pathways into the Barents Sea and the Atlantic Water heat transport at the Barents Sea Opening (reduced transect). A higher ocean resolution also improves the strong water cooling at the sea-ice edge and further formation of warm intermediate Atlantic Water. However, the impact of a higher ocean resolution on the mean March Barents sea-ice area and ocean heat transport at the Barents Sea Opening (large transect) varies among models. A potential reason for a different effect of model resolution on ocean heat transport when considering a reduced or a large transect is that the Atlantic Water and Norwegian Coastal Current inflows are under-represented at lower ocean resolution. Finally, we do not find a systematic effect of resolution on the strength of the sea-ice area—ocean heat transport relationship.

就海冰而言，巴伦支海是北极变化最迅速的地区之一。由于夏季几乎无冰，巴伦支海的最新变化发生在冬季，1979年至2018年间，三月海冰面积减少了约50％。这种海冰的损失显然与特别是通过在巴伦支海西部的巴伦支海开口，大西洋的热传输增加了。在这项研究中，我们使用七种不同的大气-海洋总环流模型，对每个模型至少具有两个不同的水平分辨率，研究了巴伦支海口海域三月巴伦支海冰面积与海洋热传输之间的联系。这些模型遵循“高分辨率模型比对项目”协议，我们关注的是历史记录（1950–2014年）。我们发现，所有模型都捕获了3月海冰面积与巴伦支海年平均海洋热量传输之间的反相关关系。此外，使用更高的海洋分辨率可以更好地解决进入巴伦支海开口（减少的样带）的不同海洋路径进入巴伦支海和大西洋水热传输的问题。更高的海洋分辨率还可以改善海冰边缘的强水冷却能力，并进一步形成温暖的中大西洋水。但是，较高的海洋分辨率对巴伦支海口（大断面）平均3月巴伦支海冰面积和海洋热传输的影响因模型而异。当考虑减小或较大的横断面时，模型分辨率对海洋热传输产生不同影响的潜在原因是，大西洋水和挪威沿海水流的流入在较低的海洋分辨率下表示不足。最后，我们没有发现分辨率对海冰面积强度-海洋热传输关系的系统影响。