The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
TC
Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-403-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-403-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
Research article
 | 
04 Feb 2020
Research article |  | 04 Feb 2020

Impact of sea ice floe size distribution on seasonal fragmentation and melt of Arctic sea ice

Adam W. Bateson, Daniel L. Feltham, David Schröder, Lucia Hosekova, Jeff K. Ridley, and Yevgeny Aksenov

Data sets

Simulations with the sea ice model CICE investigating the impact of sea ice floe size distribution on seasonal Arctic sea ice retreat A. W. Bateson, D. L. Feltham, D. Schröder, L. Hosekova, J. K. Ridley, and Y. Aksenov https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.223

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Short summary
The Arctic sea ice cover has been observed to be decreasing, particularly in summer. We use numerical models to gain insight into processes controlling its seasonal and decadal evolution. Sea ice is made of pieces of ice called floes. Previous models have set these floes to be the same size, which is not supported by observations. In this study we show that accounting for variable floe size reveals the importance of sea ice regions close to the open ocean in driving seasonal retreat of sea ice.
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