Arctic sea ice volume export through the Fram Strait: variation and its effect factors

Arctic sea ice export is important for the redistribution of freshwater and sea ice mass.Here,we use the sea ice thickness,sea ice velocity,and sea ice concentration(SIC)to estimate the exported sea ice volume through the Fram Strait from 2011 to 2018.We further analyse the contributions of the sea ice thickness,velocity and concentration to sea ice volume export.Then,the relationships between atmospheric circulation indices(Arctic Oscillation(AO),North Atlantic Oscillation(NAO),and Arctic Dipole(AD))and the sea ice volume export are discussed.Finally,we analyse the impact of wind-driven oceanic circulation indices(Ekman transport(ET))on the sea ice volume export.The sea ice volume export rapidly increases in winter and decreases in spring.The exported sea ice volume in winter is likely to exceed that in spring in the future.Among sea ice thickness,velocity and SIC,the greatest contribution to sea ice export comes from the ice velocity.The exported sea ice volume through the zonal gate of the Fram Strait(which contributes 97%to the total sea ice volume export of the Fram Strait)is much higher than that through the meridional gate(3%)because the sea ice flowing out of the zonal gate has the characteristics of a high thickness(mainly thicker than 1 m),a high velocity(mainly faster than 0.06 m/s)and a high concentration(mainly higher than 80%).The AD and ET explain 53.86%and 38.37%of the variation in sea ice volume export,respectively.

Recent satellite-derived sea ice volume flux through the Fram Strait： 2011–2015

The Fram Strait（FS） is the primary region of sea ice export from the Arctic Ocean and thus plays an important role in regulating the amount of sea ice and fresh water entering the North Atlantic seas. A 5 a（2011–2015） sea ice thickness record retrieved from Cryo Sat-2 observations is used to derive a sea ice volume flux via the FS. Over this period, a mean winter accumulative volume flux（WAVF） based on sea ice drift data derived from passivemicrowave measurements, which are provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center（NSIDC） and the Institut Francais de Recherche pour d＇Exploitation de la Mer（IFREMER）, amounts to 1 029 km^3（NSIDC） and1 463 km^3（IFREMER）, respectively. For this period, a mean monthly volume flux（area flux） difference between the estimates derived from the NSIDC and IFREMER drift data is –62 km^3 per month（–18×10~6 km^2 per month）.Analysis reveals that this negative bias is mainly attributable to faster IFREMER drift speeds in comparison with slower NSIDC drift data. NSIDC-based sea ice volume flux estimates are compared with the results from the University of Bremen（UB）, and the two products agree relatively well with a mean monthly bias of（5.7±45.9） km^3 per month for the period from January 2011 to August 2013. IFREMER-based volume flux is also in good agreement with previous results of the 1990 s. Compared with P1（1990/1991–1993/1994） and P2（2003/2004–2007/2008）, the WAVF estimates indicate a decline of more than 600 km^3 in P3（2011/2012–2014/2015）. Over the three periods, the variability and the decline in the sea ice volume flux are mainly attributable to sea ice motion changes, and second to sea ice thickness changes, and the least to sea ice concentration variations.

Arctic sea ice volume export through the Fram Strait from combined satellite and model data:1979–2012

By combing satellite-derived ice motion and concentration with ice thickness fields from a popular model PIOMAS we obtain the estimates of ice volume flux passing the Fram Strait over the 1979–2012 period. Since current satellite and field observations for sea ice thickness are limited in time and space, the use of PIOMAS is expected to fill the gap by providing temporally continued ice thickness fields. Calculated monthly volume flux exhibits a prominent annual cycle with the peak record in March（roughly 145 km3/month） and the trough in August（10 km^3/month）. Annual ice volume flux（1 132 km^3） is primarily attributable to winter（October through May） outflow（approximately 92%）. Uncertainty in annual ice volume export is estimated to be 55 km^3（or 5.7%）. Our results also verified the extremely large volume flux appearing between late 1980 s and mid-1990 s. Nevertheless, no clear trend was found in our volume flux results. Ice motion is the primary factor in the determination of behavior of volume flux. Ice thickness presented a general decline trend may partly enhance or weaken the volume flux trend. Ice concentration exerted the least influences on modulating trends and variability in volume flux. Moreover, the linkage between winter ice volume flux and three established Arctic atmospheric schemes were examined. Compared to NAO, the DA and EOF3 mechanism explains a larger part of variations of ice volume flux across the strait.

An assessment of the CMIP6 performance in simulating Arctic sea ice volume flux via Fram Strait

Numerical models serve as an essential tool to investigate the causes and effects of Arctic sea ice changes.Evaluating the simulation capabilities of the most recent CMIP6 models in sea ice volume flux provides references for model applications and improvements.Meanwhile,reliable long-term simulation results of the ice volume fux contribute to a deeper understanding of the sea ice response to global climate change.In this study,the sea ice volume flux through six Arctic gateways over the past four decades(1979-2014)were estimated in combination of satellite observations of sea ice concentration(SIC)and sea ice motion(SIM)as well as the Pan-Arctic Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System(PIOMAS)reanalysis sea ice thickness(SIT)data.The simulation capability of 17 CMIP6 historical models for the volume flux through Fram Strait were quantitatively assessed.Sea ice volume flux simulated from the ensemble mean of 17 CMIP6 models demonstrates better performance than that from the individual model,yet IPSL-CM6A-LR and EC-Earth3-Veg-LR outperform the ensemble mean in the annual volume flux,with Taylor scores of 0.86 and 0.50,respectively.CMIP6 models display relatively robust capability in simulating the seasonal variations of volume flux.Among them,CESM2-WACCM performs the best,with a correlation coefficient of 0.96 and a Taylor score of 0.88.Conversely,NESM3 demonstrates the largest devi-ation from the observation/reanalysis data,with the lowest Taylor score of 0.16.The variability of sea ice volume flux is primarily influenced by SIM and SIT,followed by SIC.The extreme large sea ice export through Fram Strait is linked to the occurrence of anomalously low air temperatures,which in turn promote increased SIC and SIT in the corresponding region.Moreover,the intensified activity of Arctic cyclones and Arctic dipole anomaly could boost the southward sea ice velocity through Fram Strait,which further enhance the sea ice outflow.

Relative Impacts of Sea Ice Loss and Atmospheric Internal Variability on the Winter Arctic to East Asian Surface Air Temperature Based on Large-Ensemble Simulations with NorESM2

To quantify the relative contributions of Arctic sea ice and unforced atmospheric internal variability to the “warm Arctic, cold East Asia”(WACE) teleconnection, this study analyses three sets of large-ensemble simulations carried out by the Norwegian Earth System Model with a coupled atmosphere–land surface model, forced by seasonal sea ice conditions from preindustrial, present-day, and future periods. Each ensemble member within the same set uses the same forcing but with small perturbations to the atmospheric initial state. Hence, the difference between the present-day(or future) ensemble mean and the preindustrial ensemble mean provides the ice-loss-induced response, while the difference of the individual members within the present-day(or future) set is the effect of atmospheric internal variability. Results indicate that both present-day and future sea ice loss can force a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation with a WACE pattern in winter. The magnitude of ice-induced Arctic warming is over four(ten) times larger than the ice-induced East Asian cooling in the present-day(future) experiment;the latter having a magnitude that is about 30% of the observed cooling. Sea ice loss contributes about 60%(80%) to the Arctic winter warming in the present-day(future) experiment. Atmospheric internal variability can also induce a WACE pattern with comparable magnitudes between the Arctic and East Asia. Ice-lossinduced East Asian cooling can easily be masked by atmospheric internal variability effects because random atmospheric internal variability may induce a larger magnitude warming. The observed WACE pattern occurs as a result of both Arctic sea ice loss and atmospheric internal variability, with the former dominating Arctic warming and the latter dominating East Asian cooling.

Projecting Wintertime Newly Formed Arctic Sea Ice through Weighting CMIP6 Model Performance and Independence

Precipitous Arctic sea-ice decline and the corresponding increase in Arctic open-water areas in summer months give more space for sea-ice growth in the subsequent cold seasons. Compared to the decline of the entire Arctic multiyear sea ice,changes in newly formed sea ice indicate more thermodynamic and dynamic information on Arctic atmosphere–ocean–ice interaction and northern mid–high latitude atmospheric teleconnections. Here, we use a large multimodel ensemble from phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project(CMIP6) to investigate future changes in wintertime newly formed Arctic sea ice. The commonly used model-democracy approach that gives equal weight to each model essentially assumes that all models are independent and equally plausible, which contradicts with the fact that there are large interdependencies in the ensemble and discrepancies in models' performances in reproducing observations. Therefore, instead of using the arithmetic mean of well-performing models or all available models for projections like in previous studies, we employ a newly developed model weighting scheme that weights all models in the ensemble with consideration of their performance and independence to provide more reliable projections. Model democracy leads to evident bias and large intermodel spread in CMIP6 projections of newly formed Arctic sea ice. However, we show that both the bias and the intermodel spread can be effectively reduced by the weighting scheme. Projections from the weighted models indicate that wintertime newly formed Arctic sea ice is likely to increase dramatically until the middle of this century regardless of the emissions scenario.Thereafter, it may decrease(or remain stable) if the Arctic warming crosses a threshold(or is extensively constrained).

Assessments of Data-Driven Deep Learning Models on One-Month Predictions of Pan-Arctic Sea Ice Thickness

In recent years,deep learning methods have gradually been applied to prediction tasks related to Arctic sea ice concentration,but relatively little research has been conducted for larger spatial and temporal scales,mainly due to the limited time coverage of observations and reanalysis data.Meanwhile,deep learning predictions of sea ice thickness(SIT)have yet to receive ample attention.In this study,two data-driven deep learning(DL)models are built based on the ConvLSTM and fully convolutional U-net(FC-Unet)algorithms and trained using CMIP6 historical simulations for transfer learning and fine-tuned using reanalysis/observations.These models enable monthly predictions of Arctic SIT without considering the complex physical processes involved.Through comprehensive assessments of prediction skills by season and region,the results suggest that using a broader set of CMIP6 data for transfer learning,as well as incorporating multiple climate variables as predictors,contribute to better prediction results,although both DL models can effectively predict the spatiotemporal features of SIT anomalies.Regarding the predicted SIT anomalies of the FC-Unet model,the spatial correlations with reanalysis reach an average level of 89%over all months,while the temporal anomaly correlation coefficients are close to unity in most cases.The models also demonstrate robust performances in predicting SIT and SIE during extreme events.The effectiveness and reliability of the proposed deep transfer learning models in predicting Arctic SIT can facilitate more accurate pan-Arctic predictions,aiding climate change research and real-time business applications.

Arctic Sea Ice Variations in the First Half of the 20th Century:A New Reconstruction Based on Hydrometeorological Data

The shrinking Arctic sea-ice area(SIA) in recent decades is a striking manifestation of the ongoing climate change.Variations of the Arctic sea ice have been continuously observed by satellites since 1979, relatively well monitored since the 1950s, but are highly uncertain in the earlier period due to a lack of observations. Several reconstructions of the historical gridded sea-ice concentration(SIC) data were recently presented based on synthesized regional sea-ice observations or by applying a hybrid model–empirical approach. Here, we present an SIC reconstruction for the period1901–2019 based on established co-variability between SIC and surface air temperature, sea surface temperature, and sea level pressure patterns. The reconstructed sea-ice data for March and September are compared to the frequently used Had ISST1.1 and SIBT1850 datasets. Our reconstruction shows a large decrease in SIA from the 1920 to 1940 concurrent with the Early 20th Century Warming event in the Arctic. Such a negative SIA anomaly is absent in Had ISST1.1 data. The amplitude of the SIA anomaly reaches about 0.8 mln km^(2) in March and 1.5 mln km^(2) in September. The anomaly is about three times stronger than that in the SIBT1850 dataset. The larger decrease in SIA in September is largely due to the stronger SIC reduction in the western sector of the Arctic Ocean in the 70°–80°N latitudinal zone. Our reconstruction provides gridded monthly data that can be used as boundary conditions for atmospheric reanalyses and model experiments to study the Arctic climate for the first half of the 20th century.

Spatiotemporal variation and freeze-thaw asymmetry of Arctic sea ice in multiple dimensions during 1979 to 2020

Arctic sea ice is broadly regarded as an indicator and amplifier of global climate change.The rapid changes in Arctic sea ice have been widely concerned.However,the spatiotemporal changes in the horizontal and vertical dimensions of Arctic sea ice and its asymmetry during the melt and freeze seasons are rarely quantified simultaneously based on multiple sources of the same long time series.In this study,the spatiotemporal variation and freeze-thaw asymmetry of Arctic sea ice were investigated from both the horizontal and vertical dimensions during 1979–2020 based on remote sensing and assimilation data.The results indicated that Arctic sea ice was declining at a remarkably high rate of–5.4×10^(4) km^(2)/a in sea ice area(SIA)and–2.2 cm/a in sea ice thickness(SIT)during 1979 to 2020,and the reduction of SIA and SIT was the largest in summer and the smallest in winter.Spatially,compared with other sub-regions,SIA showed a sharper declining trend in the Barents Sea,Kara Sea,and East Siberian Sea,while SIT presented a larger downward trend in the northern Canadian Archipelago,northern Greenland,and the East Siberian Sea.Regarding to the seasonal trend of sea ice on sub-region scale,the reduction rate of SIA exhibited an apparent spatial heterogeneity among seasons,especially in summer and winter,i.e.,the sub-regions linked to the open ocean exhibited a higher decline rate in winter;however,the other sub-regions blocked by the coastlines presented a greater decline rate in summer.For SIT,the sub-regions such as the Beaufort Sea,East Siberian Sea,Chukchi Sea,Central Arctic,and Canadian Archipelago always showed a higher downward rate in all seasons.Furthermore,a striking freeze-thaw asymmetry of Arctic sea ice was also detected.Comparing sea ice changes in different dimensions,sea ice over most regions in the Arctic showed an early retreat and rapid advance in the horizontal dimension but late melting and gradual freezing in the vertical dimension.The amount of sea ice melting and freezing was disequilibrium in the Arctic during the considered period,and the rate of sea ice melting was 0.3×10^(4) km^(2)/a and 0.01 cm/a higher than that of freezing in the horizontal and vertical dimensions,respectively.Moreover,there were notable shifts in the melting and freezing of Arctic sea ice in 1997/2003 and 2000/2004,respectively,in the horizontal/vertical dimension.

Acoustic Velocity-Based Inversion of the Physical Properties of Sea Ice in the Central Arctic Region

Studying the Arctic sea ice contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the climate system in polar regions and offers valuable insights into the interplay between polar climate change and the global climate and environment.One of the key research aspects is the investigation of the temperature,salinity,and density parameters of sea ice to obtain essential insights.During the 11th Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition,acoustic velocity was measured on an ice core at a short-term ice station,however,temperature,salinity,and density were not measured.In the present work,we utilized a genetic algorithm to invert these obtained acoustic velocity data to sea ice temperature,salinity,and density parameters on the basis of the relationship between acoustic velocity and the physical properties of Arctic summer sea ice.We validated the effectiveness of this inversion procedure by comparing its findings with those of other researchers.The results indicate that within the normalized depth range of 0.43-0.94,the ranges for temperature,salinity,and density are -0.48--0.29℃,1.63-3.35,and 793.1-904.1 kg m^(-3),respectively.

Wintertime Arctic Sea-Ice Decline Related to Multi-Year La Niña Events

Arctic sea ice has undergone a significant decline in the Barents-Kara Sea(BKS)since the late 1990s.Previous studies have shown that the decrease in sea ice caused by increased poleward moisture transport is modulated by tropical sea temperature changes(mainly referring to La Niña events).The occurrence of multi-year La Niña(MYLA)events has increased significantly in recent decades,and their impact on Arctic sea ice needs to be further explored.In this study,we investigate the relationship between sea-ice variation and different atmospheric diagnostics during MYLA and other La Niña(OTLA)years.The decline in BKS sea ice during MYLA winters is significantly stronger than that during OTLA years.This is because MYLA events tend to be accompanied by a warm Arctic-cold continent pattern with a barotropic high pressure blocked over the Urals region.Consequently,more frequent northward atmospheric rivers intrude into the BKS,intensifying longwave radiation downward to the underlying surface and melting the BKS sea ice.However,in the early winter of OTLA years,a negative North Atlantic Oscillation presents in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere,which obstructs the atmospheric rivers to the south of Iceland.We infer that such a different response of BKS sea-ice decline to different La Niña events is related to stratospheric processes.Considering the rapid climate changes in the past,more frequent MYLA events may account for the substantial Arctic sea-ice loss in recent decades.

Joint Probability Analysis and Prediction of Sea Ice Conditions in Liaodong Bay

Sea ice conditions in Liaodong Bay of China are often described by sea ice grades,which classify annual sea ice conditions based on the annual maximum sea ice thickness(AM-SIT)and annual maximum floating ice extent(AM-FIE).The joint probability distribution of AM-SIT and AM-FIE was established on the basis of their data pairs from 1949/1950 to 2019/2020 in Liaodong Bay.The joint intensity index of the sea ice condition in the current year is calculated,and the joint classification criteria of the sea ice grades in past years are established on the basis of the joint intensity index series.A comparison of the joint criteria with the 1973 and 2022 criteria revealed that the joint criteria of the sea ice grade match well,and the joint intensity index can be used to quantify the sea ice condition over the years.A time series analysis of the sea ice grades and the joint intensity index sequences based on the joint criteria are then performed.Results show a decreasing trend of the sea ice condition from 1949/1950 to 2019/2020,a mutation in 1990/1991,and a period of approximately 91 years of the sea ice condition.In addition,the Gray-Markov model(GMM)is applied to predict the joint sea ice grade and the joint intensity index of the sea ice condition series in future years,and the error between the results and the actual sea ice condition in 2020/2021 is small.

Deep Learning Shows Promise for Seasonal Prediction of Antarctic Sea Ice in a Rapid Decline Scenario

The rapidly changing Antarctic sea ice has garnered significant interest. To enhance the prediction skill for sea ice and respond to the Sea Ice Prediction Network-South's latest call, this study presents the reforecast results of Antarctic sea-ice area and extent from December to June of the coming year with a Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory(Conv LSTM)Network. The reforecast experiments demonstrate that Conv LSTM captures the interannual and interseasonal variability of Antarctic sea ice successfully, and performs better than the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Based on this, we present the prediction from December 2023 to June 2024, indicating that the Antarctic sea ice will remain at lows, but may not create a new record low. This research highlights the promising application of deep learning in Antarctic sea-ice prediction.

An improved algorithm for retrieving thin sea ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean from SMOS and SMAP L-band radiometer data

The aim of this study was to develop an improved thin sea ice thickness(SIT)retrieval algorithm in the Arctic Ocean from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity and Soil Moisture Active Passive L-band radiometer data.This SIT retrieval algorithm was trained using the simulated SIT from the cumulative freezing degree days model during the freeze-up period over five carefully selected regions in the Beaufort,Chukchi,East Siberian,Laptev and Kara seas and utilized the microwave polarization ratio(PR)at incidence angle of 40°.The improvements of the proposed retrieval algorithm include the correction for the sea ice concentration impact,reliable reference SIT data over different representative regions of the Arctic Ocean and the utilization of microwave polarization ratio that is independent of ice temperature.The relationship between the SIT and PR was found to be almost stable across the five selected regions.The SIT retrievals were then compared to other two existing algorithms(i.e.,UH_SIT from the University of Hamburg and UB_SIT from the University of Bremen)and validated against independent SIT data obtained from moored upward looking sonars(ULS)and airborne electromagnetic(EM)induction sensors.The results suggest that the proposed algorithm could achieve comparable accuracies to UH_SIT and UB_SIT with root mean square error(RMSE)being about 0.20 m when validating using ULS SIT data and outperformed the UH_SIT and UB_SIT with RMSE being about 0.21 m when validatng using EM SIT data.The proposed algorithm can be used for thin sea ice thickness(<1.0 m)estimation in the Arctic Ocean and requires less auxiliary data in the SIT retrieval procedure which makes its implementation more practical.

An ensemble learning method to retrieve sea ice roughness from Sentinel-1 SAR images

Sea ice surface roughness(SIR)affects the energy transfer between the atmosphere and the ocean,and it is also an important indicator for sea ice characteristics.To obtain a small-scale SIR with high spatial resolution,a novel method is proposed to retrieve SIR from Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar(SAR)images,utilizing an ensemble learning method.Firstly,the two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform is applied to obtain the spatial information of sea ice,including the scale and direction of ice patterns.Secondly,a model is developed using the Adaboost Regression model to establish a relationship among SIR,radar backscatter and the spatial information of sea ice.The proposed method is validated by using the SIR retrieved from SAR images and comparing it to the measurements obtained by the Airborne Topographic Mapper(ATM)in the summer Beaufort Sea.The determination of coefficient,mean absolute error,root-mean-square error and mean absolute percentage error of the testing data are 0.91,1.71 cm,2.82 cm,and 36.37%,respectively,which are reasonable.Moreover,K-fold cross-validation and learning curves are analyzed,which also demonstrate the method’s applicability in retrieving SIR from SAR images.

A multi-scale second-order autoregressive recursive filter approach for the sea ice concentration analysis

To effectively extract multi-scale information from observation data and improve computational efficiency,a multi-scale second-order autoregressive recursive filter(MSRF)method is designed.The second-order autoregressive filter used in this study has been attempted to replace the traditional first-order recursive filter used in spatial multi-scale recursive filter(SMRF)method.The experimental results indicate that the MSRF scheme successfully extracts various scale information resolved by observations.Moreover,compared with the SMRF scheme,the MSRF scheme improves computational accuracy and efficiency to some extent.The MSRF scheme can not only propagate to a longer distance without the attenuation of innovation,but also reduce the mean absolute deviation between the reconstructed sea ice concentration results and observations reduced by about 3.2%compared to the SMRF scheme.On the other hand,compared with traditional first-order recursive filters using in the SMRF scheme that multiple filters are executed,the MSRF scheme only needs to perform two filter processes in one iteration,greatly improving filtering efficiency.In the two-dimensional experiment of sea ice concentration,the calculation time of the MSRF scheme is only 1/7 of that of SMRF scheme.This means that the MSRF scheme can achieve better performance with less computational cost,which is of great significance for further application in real-time ocean or sea ice data assimilation systems in the future.

Retrieval of Antarctic sea ice freeboard and thickness from HY-2B satellite altimeter data

Antarctic sea ice is an important part of the Earth’s atmospheric system,and satellite remote sensing is an important technology for observing Antarctic sea ice.Whether Chinese Haiyang-2B(HY-2B)satellite altimeter data could be used to estimate sea ice freeboard and provide alternative Antarctic sea ice thickness information with a high precision and long time series,as other radar altimetry satellites can,needs further investigation.This paper proposed an algorithm to discriminate leads and then retrieve sea ice freeboard and thickness from HY-2B radar altimeter data.We first collected the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ice surface temperature(IST)product from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to extract leads from the Antarctic waters and verified their accuracy through Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar images.Second,a surface classification decision tree was generated for HY-2B satellite altimeter measurements of the Antarctic waters to extract leads and calculate local sea surface heights.We then estimated the Antarctic sea ice freeboard and thickness based on local sea surface heights and the static equilibrium equation.Finally,the retrieved HY-2B Antarctic sea ice thickness was compared with the CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness and the Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate(ASPeCt)ship-based observed sea ice thickness.The results indicate that our classification decision tree constructed for HY-2B satellite altimeter measurements was reasonable,and the root mean square error of the obtained sea ice thickness compared to the ship measurements was 0.62 m.The proposed sea ice thickness algorithm for the HY-2B radar satellite fills a gap in this application domain for the HY-series satellites and can be a complement to existing Antarctic sea ice thickness products;this algorithm could provide long-time-series and large-scale sea ice thickness data that contribute to research on global climate change.

Recent advances in studies on changes in Arctic sea ice microstructure and implications to thermodynamic modeling

The study of Arctic sea ice has traditionally been focused on large-scale such as reductions of ice coverage,thickness,volumes and sea ice regime shift.Research has primarily concentrated on the impact of large-scale external factors such as atmospheric and oceanic circulations,and solar radiation.Additionally,Arctic sea ice also undergoes rapid micro-scale evolution such as gas bubbles formation,brine pockets migration and massive formation of surface scattering layer.Field studies like CHINARE(2008-2018)and MOSAiC(2019-2020)have confirmed these observations,yet the full understanding of those changes remain insufficient and superficial.In order to cope better with the rapidly changing Arctic Ocean,this study reviews the recent advances in the microstructure of Arctic sea ice in both field observations and laboratory experiments,and looks forward to the future objectives on the microscale processes of sea ice.The significant porosity and the cyclical annual and seasonal shifts likely modify the ice's thermal,optical,and mechanical characteristics,impacting its energy dynamics and mass balance.Current thermodynamic models,both single-phase and dual-phase,fail to accurately capture these microstructural changes in sea ice,leading to uncertainties in the results.The discrepancy between model predictions and actual observations strongly motivates the parameterization on the evolution in ice microstructure and development of next-generation sea ice models,accounting for changes in ice crystals,brine pockets,and gas bubbles under the background of global warming.It helps to finally achieve a thorough comprehension of Arctic sea ice changes,encompassing both macro and micro perspectives,as well as externaland internal factors.

Optimizing the LSTM Deep Learning Model for Arctic Sea Ice Melting Prediction

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports a 95% decline in the oldest Arctic ice over the last 33 years [1], while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration states that summer Arctic Sea Ice Extent (SIE) is shrinking by 12.2% per decade since 1979 due to warmer temperatures [2]. Given the rapidly changing Arctic conditions, accurate prediction models are crucial. Deep learning models developed for Arctic forecasts primarily focus on exploring convolutional neural networks (CNN) and convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, while the exploration of the power of LSTM networks is limited. In this research, we focus on enhancing the performance of an LSTM network for predicting monthly Arctic SIE. We leverage five climate and atmospheric variables, validated for their correlation with SIE in prior studies [3]. We utilize the Spearman’s rank correlation and ExtraTrees regressor to enhance our understanding of the importance of the five variables in predicting SIE. We further enhance our predictor variables with seasonal information, lagged time steps, and a linear regression simulated SIE that accounts for the influence of past SIE on current SIE. Statistical methods guide our selection of data scalers and best evaluation metrics for our model. By experimenting with hyperparameter optimization and advanced deep learning training techniques, such as batch sizes, number of neurons, early stopping, and model checkpoint, our model achieved a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.191 and R2 of 0.996, underscoring its ability to account for nearly all the variance in our data and holds great promise for the prediction of SIE.

The Arctic Sea Ice Thickness Change in CMIP6’s Historical Simulations

This study assesses sea ice thickness(SIT)from the historical run of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 6(CMIP6).The SIT reanalysis from the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System(PIOMAS)product is chosen as the validation reference data.Results show that most models can adequately reproduce the climatological mean,seasonal cycle,and long-term trend of Arctic Ocean SIT during 1979-2014,but significant inter-model spread exists.Differences in simulated SIT patterns among the CMIP6 models may be related to model resolution and sea ice model components.By comparing the climatological mean and trend for SIT among all models,the Arctic SIT change in different seas during 1979-2014 is evaluated.Under the scenario of historical radiative forcing,the Arctic SIT will probably exponentially decay at-18%(10 yr)-1 and plausibly reach its minimum(equilibrium)of 0.47 m since the 2070s.