| Summary: | Currently, modeling studies of the significance of the ice-albedo feedback process have been inconclusive. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Arctic Ocean regions of the Chukchi/Beaufort, Laptev/East Siberian and Kara/Barents Seas have been increasing since the early 1980's, with larger increases since the early 2000's. Since the early 2000's the minimum ice extent has been decreasing more rapidly, melt onset has become earlier in the spring and freeze onset has become later in the fall. Sea ice thickness has also been decreasing since the 1980 s. Due to these large changes seen, is the ice-albedo feedback playing larger roll in the maintenance of the ice pack? If so, what has caused this feedback to become the dominant factor? We used SST data from AVHRR along with ice concentrations from SMMR and SSM/I, ice thickness from ICEsat, and melt and freeze onset data to explore this relationship further. While the ice-albedo feedback has always had an effect on the ice pack, since 2001 this feedback began to control when the ice pack refroze in the fall. A later freeze up made the ice pack thinner and more vulnerable in the following spring. The reason for this intensification was found out to be due to a shift to a thin, first-year ice pack that made up 60% of the ice in these three regions.
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