Emerging Traits of Sea Ice in the Atlantic Sector of the Arctic

Recent observations in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic reveal a sea-ice scape that functions quite differently than earlier assumed. It is also in a state where it responds more quickly to external forcing. Significant thinning of sea ice in this region has resulted in emergence of new features of the ice pack, that in many instances resemble the seasonal ice pack in the Southern Ocean. Thus in some sense an “antarctification” of the sea ice in the Arctic has occurred. This is a consequence of a thinner sea ice cover and a heavy enough snow load that now results in features, such as flooding- the phenomenon not thought to widely occur in the Arctic before. In addition to this, the thinner ice pack is more dynamic resulting in more deformation of the ice pack. These emerging physical properties of the new icescape also impact the functioning of the ice-associated ecosystem.