Arctic marginal ice zone trending wider in summer and narrower in winter

[1] Declines in Arctic sea ice extent and thickness suggest scientifically important changes in the spatial pattern of the marginal ice zone (MIZ)—a dynamic and biologically active band of sea ice cover close to open ocean. Arctic MIZ widths were measured in satellite era sea ice concentrations over the years 1979–2011 using a recently published MIZ width analysis method. Over the record, the warm season (July–September) MIZ width increased by 13 km decade−1, amounting to a 39% widening. This widening trend resulted from a marked poleward advancement of the MIZ poleward edge into regions where sea ice was increasingly younger and thinner at the beginning of annual melt, while the MIZ's equatorward edge moved comparatively little. The warm season MIZ widening contrasted in sign and strength with a cold season (February–April) MIZ narrowing trend (4 km decade−1, amounting to a 15% narrowing).

[1]  V. Squire.  Of ocean waves and sea-ice revisited , 2007 .

[2]  H. J. Zwally,et al.  Concentration gradients and growth/decay characteristics of the seasonal sea ice cover , 1984 .

[3]  J. Wallace,et al.  Response of Sea Ice to the Arctic Oscillation , 2002 .

[4]  Ron Kwok,et al.  Uncertainty in modeled Arctic sea ice volume , 2011 .

[5]  W. Emery,et al.  Distribution and trends in Arctic sea ice age through spring 2011 , 2011 .

[6]  H. Stern,et al.  Spatial scaling of Arctic sea ice deformation , 2009 .

[7]  L. Kaleschke,et al.  Exceptional melt pond occurrence in the years 2007 and 2011 on the Arctic sea ice revealed from MODIS satellite data , 2012 .

[8]  M. Holland,et al.  Maintenance of the Sea-Ice Edge , 2005 .

[9]  D. A. Rothrock,et al.  Modeling Global Sea Ice with a Thickness and Enthalpy Distribution Model in Generalized Curvilinear Coordinates , 2003 .

[10]  John E. Walsh,et al.  Future Arctic marine access: analysis and evaluation of observations, models, and projections of sea ice , 2012 .

[11]  J. Wallace,et al.  Variations in the age of Arctic sea‐ice and summer sea‐ice extent , 2004 .

[12]  W. Campbell,et al.  Determination of sea ice parameters with the NIMBUS 7 SMMR , 1984 .

[13]  Jean Duchon,et al.  Splines minimizing rotation-invariant semi-norms in Sobolev spaces , 1976, Constructive Theory of Functions of Several Variables.

[14]  Donald J. Cavalieri,et al.  Antarctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979-2010 , 2012 .

[15]  Courtenay Strong,et al.  Atmospheric influence on Arctic marginal ice zone position and width in the Atlantic sector, February–April 1979–2010 , 2012, Climate Dynamics.

[16]  Clara Deser,et al.  Sea surface temperature variability: patterns and mechanisms. , 2010, Annual review of marine science.

[17]  Josefino C. Comiso,et al.  Characteristics of Arctic winter sea ice from satellite multispectral microwave observations , 1986 .

[18]  J. Comiso,et al.  On the 2012 record low Arctic sea ice cover: Combined impact of preconditioning and an August storm , 2013 .

[19]  L. Radke,et al.  A case study of atmospheric boundary layer mean structure for flow parallel to the ice edge: Aircraft observations from CEAREX , 1991 .

[20]  W. Fraser,et al.  Habitat selection by marine mammals in the marginal ice zone , 1991, Antarctic Science.

[21]  D. Notz.  Sea-ice extent provides a limited metric of model performance , 2013 .