The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
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Articles | Volume 20, issue 8
Articles | Volume 20, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4313-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4313-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 20, issue 8
Research article
 | 
07 Aug 2026
Research article |  | 07 Aug 2026

Climatology and Interannual Variations in Arctic Winter Sea Ice Leads in the ICESat-2 Era

Mengnan Zhao, Christopher Little, Nathan Kurtz, Rachel Tilling, and Jesse Wimert

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Short summary
We take advantage of ICESat-2 satellite, which measures surface heights with nominal resolution of meters to tens of meters, to characterize a near pan-Arctic winter sea ice leads, meter-scale elongated cracks in ice, from 2018 to 2024. We find that lead fractions are higher near the ice edge and sizes follow a power-law distribution. Four distinct features in the temporal evolution of lead fraction are also identified, with fraction increase associated with larger leads.
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