Comparison of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice spatial–temporal changes during 1979–2018

Abstract

In recent years, the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice changes fluctuated significantly, and the overall trend of sea ice changes in the Arctic and Antarctic is opposite. However, studying the change characteristics and trends of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice on more sensitive sea ice parameters and on smaller time scales still has high research value and significance. The Antarctic and Arctic sea ice spatial–temporal changes are studied and compared from the aspects of sea ice concentration, sea ice extent, first-year ice extent, multi-year ice extent, melting period and freezing period based on the daily sea ice concentration data during three periods of 1979–2018, 2009–2018, and 2014–2018, in order to more comprehensively reflect the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice changes. The results are as follows: Sea ice concentration showed a decreasing trend with the maximum negative change rate of −1.771 %/year in the Arctic and an increasing trend with the maximum positive change rate of 1.007 %/year in the Antarctic, and sea ice concentration in the Arctic and Antarctic showed a decreasing trend accompanied by the decrease of latitude. The Antarctic sea ice extent increased slowly, however, there was a more obvious decrease in the Arctic sea ice extent. The Arctic sea ice melting period increased 0.1564 days/year and the freezing period decreased 0.1646 days/year, and the Antarctic melting period increased 0.0402 days/year and the freezing period decreased −0.037 days/year. First-year ice extent in the Arctic and Antarctic showed a increasing trend, and multi-year ice extent showed a decreasing trend.