Recent satellite-derived sea ice volume flux through the Fram Strait: 2011–2015

Abstract

The Fram Strait (FS) is the primary region of sea ice export from the Arctic Ocean and thus plays an important role in regulating the amount of sea ice and fresh water entering the North Atlantic seas. A 5 a (2011–2015) sea ice thickness record retrieved from CryoSat-2 observations is used to derive a sea ice volume flux via the FS. Over this period, a mean winter accumulative volume flux (WAVF) based on sea ice drift data derived from passivemicrowave measurements, which are provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the Institut Francais de Recherche pour d’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), amounts to 1 029 km3 (NSIDC) and 1 463 km3 (IFREMER), respectively. For this period, a mean monthly volume flux (area flux) difference between the estimates derived from the NSIDC and IFREMER drift data is–62 km3 per month (–18×106 km2 per month). Analysis reveals that this negative bias is mainly attributable to faster IFREMER drift speeds in comparison with slower NSIDC drift data. NSIDC-based sea ice volume flux estimates are compared with the results from the University of Bremen (UB), and the two products agree relatively well with a mean monthly bias of (5.7±45.9) km3 per month for the period from January 2011 to August 2013. IFREMER-based volume flux is also in good agreement with previous results of the 1990s. Compared with P1 (1990/1991–1993/1994) and P2 (2003/2004–2007/2008), the WAVF estimates indicate a decline of more than 600 km3 in P3 (2011/2012–2014/2015). Over the three periods, the variability and the decline in the sea ice volume flux are mainly attributable to sea ice motion changes, and second to sea ice thickness changes, and the least to sea ice concentration variations.