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.
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.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
07 Aug 2026
Research article |
| 07 Aug 2026
| 07 Aug 2026
Climatology and Interannual Variations in Arctic Winter Sea Ice Leads in the ICESat-2 Era
Mengnan Zhao
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
JANUS Research Group, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, 131 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, USA
Christopher Little
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
JANUS Research Group, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, 131 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, USA
Nathan Kurtz
Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Rachel Tilling
Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Jesse Wimert
Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA
KBR, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
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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.
We take advantage of ICESat-2 satellite, which measures surface heights with nominal resolution...
