Abstract
In this study, changes in Arctic sea ice thickness for each ice age category were examined based on satellite observations and modelled results. Interannual changes obtained from Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat)-based results show a thickness reduction over perennial sea ice (ice that survives at least one melt season with an age of no less than 2 year) up to approximately 0.5–1.0 m and 0.6–0.8 m (depending on ice age) during the investigated winter and autumn ICESat periods, respectively. Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS)-based results provide a view of a continued thickness reduction over the past four decades. Compared to 1980s, there is a clear thickness drop of roughly 0.50 m in 2010s for perennial ice. This overall decrease in sea ice thickness can be in part attributed to the amplified warming climate in north latitudes. Besides, we figure out that strongly anomalous southerly summer surface winds may play an important role in prompting the thickness decline in perennial ice zone through transporting heat deposited in open water (primarily via albedo feedback) in Eurasian sector deep into a broader sea ice regime in central Arctic Ocean. This heat source is responsible for enhanced ice bottom melting, leading to further reduction in ice thickness.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alexeev V A, Ivanov V V, Kwok R, et al. 2013. North Atlantic warming and declining volume of arctic sea ice. The Cryosphere Discussions, 7(1): 245–265
Comiso J C, Parkinson C L, Gersten R, et al. 2008. Accelerated decline in the Arctic sea ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(1): doi: 10.1029/2007GL031972
Deser C, Teng Haiyan. 2008. Evolution of Arctic sea ice concentration trends and the role of atmospheric circulation forcing, 1979–2007. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(2): doi: 10.1029/2007GL032023
Fetterer F, Knowles K, Meier W, et al. 2002. Sea Ice Index. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center, doi: 10.7265/N5QJ7F7W
Giles K A, Laxon S W, Ridout A L. 2008. Circumpolar thinning of Arctic sea ice following the 2007 record ice extent minimum. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(22): doi: 10.1029/2008GL035710
Haas C, Pfaffling A, Hendricks S, et al. 2008. Reduced ice thickness in Arctic Transpolar Drift favors rapid ice retreat. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(17): doi: 10.1029/2008GL034457
Johannessen O M, Bengtsson L, Miles M W, et al. 2004. Arctic climate change: observed and modelled temperature and sea-ice variability. Tellus A, 56(4): 328–341
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, et al. 1996. The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 77(3): 437–471
Kwok R, Cunningham G F. 2008. ICESat over Arctic sea ice: Estimation of snow depth and ice thickness. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978-2012), 113(C8): doi: 10.1029/2008JC004753
Kwok R, Cunningham G F, Wensnahan M, et al. 2009. Thinning and volume loss of the Arctic Ocean sea ice cover: 2003–2008. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978–2012), 114(C7): doi: 10.1029/2009JC005312
Kwok R, Rothrock D A. 2009. Decline in Arctic sea ice thickness from submarine and ICESat records: 1958–2008. Geophysical Research Letters, 36(15): doi: 10.1029/2009GL039035
Laxon S, Peacock N, Smith D. 2003. High interannual variability of sea ice thickness in the Arctic region. Nature, 425(6961): 947–950
Markus T, Stroeve J C, Miller J. 2009. Recent changes in Arctic sea ice melt onset, freezeup, and melt season length. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978–2012), 114(C12): doi: 10.1029/2009JC005436
Maslanik J A, Fowler C, Stroeve J, et al. 2007. A younger, thinner Arctic ice cover: Increased potential for rapid, extensive sea-ice loss. Geophysical Research Letters, 34(24): doi: 10.1029/2007GL032043
Maslanik J, Stroeve J, Fowler C, et al. 2011. Distribution and trends in Arctic sea ice age through spring 2011. Geophysical Research Letters, 38(13): doi: 10.1029/2011GL047735
Ogi M, Yamazaki K, Wallace J M. 2010. Influence of winter and summer surface wind anomalies on Summer Arctic sea ice extent. Geophysical Research Letters, 37(7): doi: 10.1029/2009GL042356
Perovich D K, Light B, Eicken H, et al. 2007. Increasing solar heating of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, 1979–2005: Attribution and role in the ice-albedo feedback. Geophysical Research Letters, 34(19): doi: 10.1029/2007GL031480
Perovich D K, Richter-Menge J A, Jones K F, et al. 2008. Sunlight, water, and ice: Extreme Arctic sea ice melt during the summer of 2007. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(11): doi: 10.1029/2008GL034007
Polyakov I V, Beszczynska A, Carmack E C, et al. 2005. One more step toward a warmer Arctic. Geophysical Research Letters, 32(17): doi: 10.1029/2005GL023740
Polyakov I V, Timokhov L A, Alexeev V A, et al. 2010. Arctic Ocean warming contributes to reduced polar ice cap. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 40(12): 2743–2756
Rigor I G, Wallace J M. 2004. Variations in the age of Arctic sea-ice and summer sea-ice extent. Geophysical Research Letters, 31(9): doi: 10.1029/2004GL019492
Rothrock D A, Percival D B, Wensnahan M. 2008. The decline in arctic sea-ice thickness: Separating the spatial, annual, and interannual variability in a quarter century of submarine data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978–2012), 113(C5): doi: 10.1029/2007JC004252
Schröder D, Feltham D L, Flocco D, et al. 2014. September Arctic seaice minimum predicted by spring melt-pond fraction. Nature Climate Change, 4(5): 353–357
Schweiger A, Lindsay R, Zhang Jinlun, et al. 2011. Uncertainty in modeled Arctic sea ice volume. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978–2012), 116(C8): doi: 10.1029/2011JC 007084
Serreze M C, Barrett A P, Stroeve J C, et al. 2009. The emergence of surface-based Arctic amplification. The Cryosphere, 3(1): 11–19
Shimada K, Kamoshida T, Itoh M, et al. 2006. Pacific Ocean inflow: Influence on catastrophic reduction of sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 33(8): doi: 10.1029/2005GL025624
Spreen G. 2008. Satellite-based estimates of Sea ice volume flux: applications to the fram Strait Region [dissertation]. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg
Steele M, Ermold W, Zhang Jinlun. 2008. Arctic Ocean surface warming trends over the past 100 years. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(2): doi: 10.1029/2007GL031651
Steele M, Zhang Jinlun, Ermold W. 2010. Mechanisms of summertime upper Arctic Ocean warming and the effect on sea ice melt. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978–2012), 115(C11): doi: 10.1029/2009JC005849
Stroeve J C, Markus T, Boisvert L, et al. 2014. Changes in Arctic melt season and implications for sea ice loss. Geophysical Research Letters, 41(4): 1216–1225
Tschudi M, Fowler C, Maslanik J. 2014. EASE-grid Sea Ice age. Version 2. [indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, doi: 10.5067/1UQJWCYPVX61
Vinnikov K Y, Robock A, Stouffer R J, et al. 1999. Global warming and Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent. Science, 286(5446): 1934–1937
Warren S G, Rigor I G, Untersteiner N, et al. 1999. Snow depth on Arctic sea ice. Journal of Climate, 12(6): 1814–1829
Woodgate R A, Aagaard K, Weingartner T J. 2006. Interannual changes in the Bering Strait fluxes of volume, heat and freshwater between 1991 and 2004. Geophysical Research Letters, 33(15): doi: 10.1029/2006GL026931
Woodgate R A, Weingartner T, Lindsay R. 2010. The 2007 Bering Strait oceanic heat flux and anomalous Arctic sea-ice retreat. Geophysical Research Letters, 37(1): doi: 10.1029/2009GL041621
Yang Qinghua, Losa S N, Losch M, et al. 2014. Assimilating SMOS sea ice thickness into a coupled ice-ocean model using a local SEIK filter. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 119(10): 6680–6692
Yi Donghui, Zwally J. 2014. Arctic Sea Ice freeboard and thickness [indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA: NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Zhang Junlun, Lindsay R, Steele M, et al. 2008. What drove the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007?. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(11): doi: 10.1029/2008GL034005
Zhang Jinjun, Rothrock D A. 2003. Modeling global sea ice with a thickness and enthalpy distribution model in generalized curvilinear coordinates. Monthly Weather Review, 131(5): 845–861
Zwally H J, Schutz B, Abdalati W, et al. 2002. ICESat’s laser measurements of polar ice, atmosphere, ocean, and land. Journal of Geodynamics, 34(3–4): 405–445
Zwally H J, Yi Donghui, Kwok R, et al. 2008. ICESat measurements of sea ice freeboard and estimates of sea ice thickness in the Weddell Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (1978–2012), 113(C2): doi: 10.1029/2007JC004284
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Foundation item: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41406215; the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China under contract No. 2014M561971; the Open fund for the Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. MGE2013KG07; the Chinese Polar Environment Comprehensive Investigation and Assessment Program, State Oceanic Administration under contract Nos CHINARE2014-03-01 and CHINARE2014-04-03.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bi, H., Fu, M., Sun, K. et al. Arctic sea ice thickness changes in terms of sea ice age. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 35, 1–10 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-016-0922-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-016-0922-x