Arctic Perennial Sea Ice Crash of the 2000s and its Impacts

• Main Authors: Son V. Nghiem, Gregory Neumann, Ignatius G. Rigor, Pablo Clemente-colón, Donald K. Perovich
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; albedo; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.687.1235; http://www.thinkmind.org/download.php?articleid%3Dbionature_2011_3_20_60120

Abstract—Satellite and surface observations show that half of the extent of perennial sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been lost in the decade of 2000s. Perennial sea ice is the class of old and thick ice important for the stability of the Arctic environment. Perennial ice extent set the record low in 2008 and has remained low as seen in updated satellite scatterometer data and surface drifting buoy measurements in 2011. The drastic decline of Arctic sea ice is far exceeding the worst-case projections from climate models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. The important role of the Polar Express phenomenon has been identified, indicating dynamic and thermodynamic effects are combined to expedite the loss of perennial sea ice. Consequently, major impacts include decreases in Arctic surface albedo, increases in absorbed insolation, facilitation of sea-route opening, and changes in tropospheric chemical processes such as bromine explosion, ozone depletion, and mercury deposition that impact the biosphere. Keywords—Perennial sea ice loss, Polar Express, albedo, insolation, Arctic passages, tropospheric chemical changes. I.