Arctic ice pack
View article: Changing state of Arctic sea ice across all seasons
Changing state of Arctic sea ice across all seasons Open
The decline in the floating sea ice cover in the Arctic is one of the most striking manifestations of climate change. In this review, we examine this ongoing loss of Arctic sea ice across all seasons. Our analysis is based on satellite ret…
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Arctic sea ice is an important temporal sink and means of transport for microplastic Open
Microplastics (MP) are recognized as a growing environmental hazard and have been identified as far as the remote Polar Regions, with particularly high concentrations of microplastics in sea ice. Little is known regarding the horizontal va…
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Arctic sea ice thickness, volume, and multiyear ice coverage: losses and coupled variability (1958–2018) Open
Large-scale changes in Arctic sea ice thickness, volume and multiyear sea ice (MYI) coverage with available measurements from submarine sonars, satellite altimeters (ICESat and CryoSat-2), and satellite scatterometers are summarized. The s…
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The ECMWF operational ensemble reanalysis–analysis system for ocean and sea ice: a description of the system and assessment Open
The ECMWF OCEAN5 system is a global ocean and sea-ice ensemble of reanalysis and real-time analysis. This paper gives a full description of the OCEAN5 system, with the focus on upgrades of system components with respect to its predecessors…
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A 40-y record reveals gradual Antarctic sea ice increases followed by decreases at rates far exceeding the rates seen in the Arctic Open
Significance A newly completed 40-y record of satellite observations is used to quantify changes in Antarctic sea ice coverage since the late 1970s. Sea ice spreads over vast areas and has major impacts on the rest of the climate system, r…
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Arctic Sea Ice in CMIP6 Open
We examine CMIP6 simulations of Arctic sea‐ice area and volume. We find that CMIP6 models produce a wide spread of mean Arctic sea‐ice area, capturing the observational estimate within the multimodel ensemble spread. The CMIP6 multimodel e…
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SEAS5: the new ECMWF seasonal forecast system Open
In this paper we describe SEAS5, ECMWF's fifth generation seasonal forecast system, which became operational in November 2017. Compared to its predecessor, System 4, SEAS5 is a substantially changed forecast system. It includes upgraded ve…
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Increased West Antarctic and unchanged East Antarctic ice discharge over the last 7 years Open
Ice discharge from large ice sheets plays a direct role in determining rates of sea-level rise. We map present-day Antarctic-wide surface velocities using Landsat 7 and 8 imagery spanning 2013–2015 and compare to earlier estimates derived …
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Observed Arctic sea-ice loss directly follows anthropogenic CO <sub>2</sub> emission Open
Why we are losing sea ice Arctic sea ice is disappearing rapidly, leading to predictions of an ice-free summer in the near future. Simulations of the timing of summer sea-ice loss differ substantially, making it difficult to evaluate the p…
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Seasonal and Regional Manifestation of Arctic Sea Ice Loss Open
The Arctic Ocean is currently on a fast track toward seasonally ice-free conditions. Although most attention has been on the accelerating summer sea ice decline, large changes are also occurring in winter. This study assesses past, present…
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Global environmental consequences of twenty-first-century ice-sheet melt Open
Government policies currently commit us to surface warming of three to four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100, which will lead to enhanced ice-sheet melt. Ice-sheet discharge was not explicitly included in Coupled Model I…
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The Copernicus Global 1/12° Oceanic and Sea Ice GLORYS12 Reanalysis Open
GLORYS12 is a global eddy-resolving physical ocean and sea ice reanalysis at 1/12° horizontal resolution covering the 1993-present altimetry period, designed and implemented in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring …
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The polar regions in a 2°C warmer world Open
Polar warming will have widespread near-term consequences for sea level rise, extreme weather, plants, animals, and humans.
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Sea ice decline and 21st century trans‐Arctic shipping routes Open
The observed decline in Arctic sea ice is projected to continue, opening shorter trade routes across the Arctic Ocean, with potentially global economic implications. Here we quantify, using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 glo…
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Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Atmosphere Open
With the Arctic rapidly changing, the needs to observe, understand, and model the changes are essential. To support these needs, an annual cycle of observations of atmospheric properties, processes, and interactions were made while driftin…
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A weekly Arctic sea-ice thickness data record from merged CryoSat-2 and SMOS satellite data Open
Sea-ice thickness on a global scale is derived from different satellite sensors using independent retrieval methods. Due to the sensor and orbit characteristics, such satellite retrievals differ in spatial and temporal resolution as well a…
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Borealization of the Arctic Ocean in Response to Anomalous Advection From Sub-Arctic Seas Open
An important yet still not well documented aspect of recent changes in the Arctic Ocean is associated with the advection of anomalous sub-Arctic Atlantic- and Pacific-origin waters and biota into the polar basins, a process which we refer …
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The future sea-level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet: a multi-model ensemble study of ISMIP6 Open
The Greenland ice sheet is one of the largest contributors to global mean sea-level rise today and is expected to continue to lose mass as the Arctic continues to warm. The two predominant mass loss mechanisms are increased surface meltwat…
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Understanding Arctic Ocean Circulation: A Review of Ocean Dynamics in a Changing Climate Open
The Arctic Ocean is a focal point of climate change, with ocean warming, freshening, sea‐ice decline, and circulation that link to the changing atmospheric and terrestrial environment. Major features of the Arctic and the interconnected na…
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Estimating Arctic sea ice thickness and volume using CryoSat-2 radar altimeter data Open
Arctic sea ice is a major element of the Earth’s climate system. It acts to regulate regional heat and freshwater budgets and subsequent atmospheric and oceanic circulation across the Arctic and at lower latitudes. Satellites have observed…
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The Polar Amplification Model Intercomparison Project (PAMIP) contribution to CMIP6: investigating the causes and consequences of polar amplification Open
Polar amplification – the phenomenon where external radiative forcing produces a larger change in surface temperature at high latitudes than the global average – is a key aspect of anthropogenic climate change, but its causes and consequen…
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On the future navigability of Arctic sea routes: High-resolution projections of the Arctic Ocean and sea ice Open
The rapid Arctic summer sea ice reduction in the last decade has lead to debates in the maritime industries on the possibility of an increase in cargo transportation in the region. Average sailing times on the North Sea Route along the Sib…
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Instantaneous Antarctic ice sheet mass loss driven by thinning ice shelves Open
Recent observations show that the rate at which the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) is contributing to sea level rise is increasing. Increases in ice‐ocean heat exchange have the potential to induce substantial mass loss through the melting of i…
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Causes of ice age intensification across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition Open
Significance Conflicting sets of hypotheses highlight either the role of ice sheets or atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in causing the increase in duration and severity of ice age cycles ∼1 Mya during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT)…
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Unprecedented springtime retreat of Antarctic sea ice in 2016 Open
During austral spring 2016 Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) decreased at a record rate of 75 × 10 3 km 2 d −1 , which was 46% faster than the mean rate and 18% faster than in any previous spring season during the satellite era. The decrease …
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Using Causal Effect Networks to Analyze Different Arctic Drivers of Midlatitude Winter Circulation Open
In recent years, the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes have suffered from severe winters like the extreme 2012/13 winter in the eastern United States. These cold spells were linked to a meandering upper-tropospheric jet stream pattern and a…
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Ryder Glacier in northwest Greenland is shielded from warm Atlantic water by a bathymetric sill Open
The processes controlling advance and retreat of outlet glaciers in fjords draining the Greenland Ice Sheet remain poorly known, undermining assessments of their dynamics and associated sea-level rise in a warming climate. Mass loss of the…
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What caused the recent “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern in winter temperatures? Open
The emergence of rapid Arctic warming in recent decades has coincided with unusually cold winters over Northern Hemisphere continents. It has been speculated that this “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents” trend pattern is due to sea ice loss. He…
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Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Snow and sea ice Open
Year-round observations of the physical snow and ice properties and processes that govern the ice pack evolution and its interaction with the atmosphere and the ocean were conducted during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the…
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New climate models reveal faster and larger increases in Arctic precipitation than previously projected Open
As the Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the planet, evidence mounts that the region is experiencing unprecedented environmental change. The hydrological cycle is projected to intensify throughout the twenty-first century, w…