Sea ice export through the Fram Strait derived from a combined model and satellite data set

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: C. Min, L. Mu, Q. Yang, R. Ricker, Q. Shi, B. Han, R. Wu, J. Liu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2019
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Geology; QE1-996.5; Arctic; Fram Strait; Sea ice; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-3209-2019; https://doaj.org/article/0c0404943067419eb068e10b364d1ce5

Sea ice volume export through the Fram Strait plays an important role in the Arctic freshwater and energy redistribution. The combined model and satellite sea ice thickness (CMST) data set assimilates CryoSat-2 and soil moisture and ocean salinity (SMOS) thickness products together with satellite sea ice concentration. The CMST data set closes the gap of stand-alone satellite-derived sea ice thickness in summer and therefore allows us to estimate sea ice volume export during the melt season. In this study, we first validate the CMST data set using field observations, and then we estimate the continuous seasonal and interannual variations in Arctic sea ice volume flux through the Fram Strait from September 2010 to December 2016. The results show that seasonal and interannual sea ice volume export vary from about <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">240</mn><mo>(</mo><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">40</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="55pt" height="12pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="8fd5890aca282cd2c3e0ae02f347dbd7"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-13-3209-2019-ie00001.svg" width="55pt" height="12pt" src="tc-13-3209-2019-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> to <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">970</mn><mo>(</mo><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">60</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="55pt" height="12pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="1a75789910525d24bc82158d5be2ef0d"><svg:image ...