Sea Ice Trends on Polar Regions

Year 2023, Issue: 23, 38 - 54, 31.07.2023

Kubilay Dökümcü

Abstract

Measurements of sea ice levels have increased since 1979 when the continuously monitoring of the sea ice by satellites began. In this study, the annual trends that occur under the influence of the climate change in the Polar regions, Arctic and Antarctic, were reviewed. The values in all three distinctive physical features of sea ice are examined, the sea ice extent (SIE), sea ice volume (SIV) and sea ice thickness (SIT), and trend lists for both regions were created. All the trend values in the Arctic region are coherently negative. Especially in the future scenarios, according to SIE and SIV trend values, if the worst case (RCP 8.5) happens, Arctic will be almost free of ice in September before 2060. In Antarctic, trend values are generally in positive direction but in some cases, it shows negative values. Although no clear explanation was found about why the difference in Antarctic side, it is considered to be due to differences in measurement and calculation techniques or the short period. The numbers of SIE and SIV data sets are more than SIT data because it is very hard to obtain and cannot be directly measured from satellites.

Keywords

Arctic, Antarctic, Sea ice extent, Sea ice volume, Sea ice thickness, Climate change

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