Antarctic sea ice change based on a new sea ice dataset from 1992 to 2008

Abstract

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 71:155-169 (2016) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01436 Antarctic sea ice change based on a new sea ice dataset from 1992 to 2008 Li-Yin He1,2,3, Chang-Qing Ke3,4,5,*, Xiaobing Zhou6, Ya-Nan Cui1, Liang Shan1 1School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China 2Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 3Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China 4Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, PR China 5Collaborative Innovation Center of Novel Software Technology and Industrialization, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China 6Department of Geophysical Engineering, Montana Tech of The University of Montana, 1300 West Park Street, Butte, MT 59701, USA *Corresponding author: kecq@nju.edu.cn ABSTRACT: The sea ice concentration dataset (covering the period 1992-2008) used in this study is a new dataset based on the Sea Ice Climate Change Initiative (SICCI) algorithm. We investigate whether the SICCI dataset is on a par with other datasets for studying sea ice cover changes in the Southern Ocean. We then examine spatiotemporal variations in sea ice derived from the SICCI dataset over the Southern Ocean, and analyse relationships of sea ice with sea surface temperature (SST). The results indicate that there is no significant difference between the SICCI dataset and the NASA Team dataset, and therefore the former can also be used for studying sea ice changes. Both sea ice extent (SIE) and sea ice area (SIA) derived from the SICCI dataset over the Southern Ocean increased slightly from 1992 to 2008, at rates of (17.75 ± 11.50) × 103 and (17.37 ± 9.51) × 103 km2 yr–1, respectively. Antarctic sea ice has significant seasonal variations; all seasonally averaged SIE and SIA show an increase, with spring showing the largest positive changing rate. The Weddell Sea, Ross Sea, and Indian Ocean have positive yearly changing rates in SIE and SIA, while the Bellingshausen/Amundsen seas and western Pacific Ocean have negative yearly changing rates. However, overall sea ice over the Southern Ocean has a slight positive trend, which is the same as the sea ice change pattern derived from the NASA Team dataset. This indicates that the contributions to the change in sea ice over the whole Southern Ocean due to the Weddell Sea, Ross Sea, and Indian Ocean dominate over those by the Bellingshausen/Amundsen seas and western Pacific Ocean. Further analysis shows that both SIE and SIA are negatively correlated with SST in the Southern Ocean or each of the 5 longitudinal sectors, and sea ice is more sensitive to SST in spring and autumn. KEY WORDS: SICCI algorithm · Sea ice extent · Sea ice area · Sea surface temperature · Antarctica Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: He LY, Ke CQ, Zhou X, Cui YN, Shan L (2016) Antarctic sea ice change based on a new sea ice dataset from 1992 to 2008. Clim Res 71:155-169. https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01436 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 71, No. 2. Online publication date: December 28, 2016 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 2016 Inter-Research.