Open AccessSpatial and Temporal Variations of Arctic Sea Ice From 2002 to 2017
Author(s) -
Wang Zongliang,
Li Zhen,
Zeng Jiangyuan,
Liang Shuang,
Zhang Ping,
Tang Fuquan,
Chen Siyuan,
Ma Xiongwei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
earth and space science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 23
ISSN - 2333-5084
DOI - 10.1029/2020ea001278
Subject(s) - sea ice , arctic , arctic ice pack , arctic sea ice decline , climatology , environmental science , climate change , sea ice concentration , anomaly (physics) , arctic geoengineering , geology , oceanography , physical geography , sea ice thickness , geography , physics , condensed matter physics
Abstract The variation of polar sea ice is an indicator of polar environmental change, which plays an important role in the study of regional and global climate change. In this paper, the latest sea ice data sets from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative were firstly combined to comprehensively analyze the spatial and temporal variation of Arctic sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice thickness (SIT) from 2002 to 2017. The results show that during this period, the SIC of the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea decreases the most significantly, reaching −1.11%·year −1 . The Arctic annual average sea ice extent (SIE) and sea ice area (SIA) exhibit noticeable decreasing trends, reaching −0.0592 × 10 6 km·year −1 and −0.0628 × 10 6 km·year −1 , respectively. Both of Arctic SIE and SIA vary seasonally, and they reach the minimum values of 4.97 × 10 6 km 2 and 3.96 × 10 6 km 2 in September and the maximum values of 14.58 × 10 6 km 2 and 13.35 × 10 6 km 2 in March, respectively. Moreover, the Arctic SIE and SIA anomaly series from 2002 to 2017 were analyzed based on the linear regression method. It is found the most noticeable decreasing trends of the Arctic SIE and SIA are from July to October. The maximum variation of the SIE is −1.06 × 10 6 km 2 (10a) −1 , and the maximum variation of the SIA is −1.09 × 10 6 km 2 (10a) −1 . The Arctic SIE and SIA present the smallest decreasing trends from April to May, which are −0.19 × 10 6 km 2 (10a) −1 and −0.2 × 10 6 km 2 (10a) −1 , respectively. The Arctic SIT also displays a pronounced decreasing trend with −0.015 m·year −1 in autumn and −0.018 m·year −1 in winter. The annual average SIT reaches a minimum of 1.28 m in 2013 and a maximum of 1.66 m in 2005. Particularly, the SIT of the Hudson Bay decreases the most significantly, reaching −0.051 m·year −1 . Finally, the Arctic average SIT was tested by the Mann‐Kendall method. It is found that the SIT has a sudden change in 2007, from a slight increase in 2003–2007 to a significant decrease in 2007–2017. Overall, the decreasing trend of the Arctic sea ice (both SIC and SIT) is significant in the past decade. These findings can contribute to future research on polar regions and global climate change.