Variations of sea ice in the Antarctic and Arctic from 1997–2006

doi:10.1007/s11707-014-0422-2

Front. Earth Sci.

2014, Vol. 8

Issue (3) : 385-392 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-014-0422-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Variations of sea ice in the Antarctic and Arctic from 1997–2006

Huijie DONG¹,Xiaolei ZOU^2,^*(

)

1. College of Atmospheric Science, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
2. Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32304, USA

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Abstract

Sea ice in polar areas is an important part of the global climate system. In order to obtain variations in sea ice extent for the Antarctic and Arctic, this paper analyzed the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) sea ice data product dating from March 1, 1997 to December 31, 2006. During this period, the sea ice extent increased in the Antarctic with the trend of (0.5467±0.4933)×10⁴ km²·yr^–1, and decreased in the Arctic with the trend of (–7.6125±0.3503)×10⁴ km²·yr^–1. In different sectors of the Antarctic, variations of the sea ice extent are different. The sea ice extent increased in the Weddell Sea and Indian Ocean, but decreased in the Ross Sea, Western Pacific Ocean, and Bellingshausen/Amundsen Seas.

Keywords sea ice concentration (SICN) sea ice extent linear trend

Corresponding Author(s): Xiaolei ZOU

Issue Date: 04 July 2014

Cite this article:

Huijie DONG,Xiaolei ZOU. Variations of sea ice in the Antarctic and Arctic from 1997–2006[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2014, 8(3): 385-392.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-014-0422-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2014/V8/I3/385

Tab.1 Summary of sea ice extent trends in previous research

Tab.2 Channel characteristics of SSM/I

Fig.1 Weighting functions for SSM/I imager channels calculated from the US standard profile using CRTM. These weighting functions were not sensitive to surface type.

Fig.2 The coverage of sea ice concentration (SICN) with SICN greater than 15% on February 15 (top panel) and September 15 (bottom panel) of 1998 (pink area) and 2006 (dark blue area), with SICN data on the coastline removed. The left side represents the coverage in the Southern Hemisphere and the right side represents the Northern Hemisphere. Purple indicates overlapped areas.

Fig.3 The?annual variation of sea ice extent (SICN greater than 15%) in 1998 (pink area) and 2006 (dark blue area) in the Antarctic (50S–90S) and Arctic (50N–90N). Purple indicates overlapped area.

Fig.4 (a) Inter-annual variations of sea ice extent (SICN greater than 15%) in the Antarctic (50S–90S) and Arctic (50N–90N); (b) Mean annual cycles of sea ice extent calculated using inter-annual variations in the Antarctic and Arctic. (c) Inter-annual variations of the anomalies of sea ice extent (the mean annual cycle is subtracted) and linear trend lines (green) in the Antarctic and Arctic. The trends in sea ice extent (SICN greater than 15%) in the Antarctic (50S–90S) and Arctic (50N–90N) were 0.5467±0.4933×10⁴ km²·yr^–1and –7.6125±0.3503×10⁴ km²·yr^–1 respectively. The number of data points used to calculate the trends were 3,546 and 3,561, respectively. Outliers deviating from the mean by more than three standard deviations, according to the Bi-weight method, are indicated in red. The purple line is the zero line.

Tab.3 Regional sectors of the Southern Ocean (same as Zwally et al., 2002)

Fig.5 The top panel shows the differences between sea ice concentration (SICN) maps averaged over the first 5 years (1998–2002) and the last 4 years (2003–2006) for February (left) and September (right). (a), (b), (c) and (d) are the enlarged areas of the first 5 years averages and last 4 years averages, which are marked in top panel figures. The five sectors are the Weddell Sea (60W–20E), the Indian Ocean (20E–90E), the Western Pacific Ocean (WP Ocean, 90E–160E), the Ross Sea (160E–130W) and the Bellingshausen/Amundsen Seas (BA Seas, 130W–60W).

Tab.4 Trends of sea ice extent (SICN greater than 15%) calculated from the data during March 1, 1997 to December 31, 2006 in the Arctic, Antarctic, and each sector of the Antarctic. σ represents the 1-sigma uncertainty estimates for the trend (99% confidence level).

Fig.6 Trends of sea ice extent (SICN greater than 15%) in the Arctic, Antarctic, and each sector of the Antarctic.

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