Abnormal Winter Melting of the Arctic Sea Ice Cap Observed by the Spaceborne Passive Microwave Sensors

• Published in: Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• Main Authors: Seongsuk Lee, Yu Yi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Korean Space Science Society 2016
• Subjects: the Arctic; sea ice; sea ice concentration; DMSP; passive microwave sensor; Astronomy; QB1-991; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Cora; North Pole; Ice cap; Polar Ice Cap; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5140/JASS.2016.33.4.305; https://doaj.org/article/4afb28df4fc5444fb08869d19c7b8b31

The spatial size and variation of Arctic sea ice play an important role in Earth’s climate system. These are affected by conditions in the polar atmosphere and Arctic sea temperatures. The Arctic sea ice concentration is calculated from brightness temperature data derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite program (DMSP) F13 Special Sensor Microwave/Imagers (SSMI) and the DMSP F17 Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) sensors. Many previous studies point to significant reductions in sea ice and their causes. We investigated the variability of Arctic sea ice using the daily and monthly sea ice concentration data from passive microwave observations to identify the sea ice melting regions near the Arctic polar ice cap. We discovered the abnormal melting of the Arctic sea ice near the North Pole even during the summer and the winter. This phenomenon is hard to explain only surface air temperature or solar heating as suggested by recent studies. We propose a hypothesis explaining this phenomenon. The heat from the deep sea in Arctic Ocean ridges and/or the hydrothermal vents might be contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice. This hypothesis could be verified by the observation of warm water column structure below the melting or thinning arctic sea ice through the project such as Coriolis dataset for reanalysis (CORA).