Is there a role of the Beaufort Sea high pressure in very rapid sea ice loss events?

Arctic sea ice loss on weather (synoptic) time scales, such as the sea ice loss associated with the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012, is often considered unrepresented in global climate models. Composite means of atmospheric analysis fields indicate that very rapid sea ice loss events (VRILEs) are associated with strong gradients in mean sea level pressure. These composites also indicate the presence of a coupled surface cyclone and tropopause polar vortex. Here we investigate whether there is a relationship between the strength of the persistent anticyclone in the Beaufort sea with VRILEs. A metric that characterizes variations between this persistent anticyclone and Arctic cyclones over the central Arctic Ocean is developed from ERA5 reanalysis data using mean sea level pressure standardized anomalies on the days VRILEs occur. Results are then compared to an existing climatology of the Aleutian Low-Beaufort Sea anticyclone relationship based on 850 hPa heights.