Record Winter Winds This Year Accelerated Loss of Thicker and Older Arctic Sea Ice

Nature Communications Earth & Environment, August 3

Newly emerging strong winds in the Beaufort Sea region may cause unusually high summer losses of the Arctic’s remaining store of old and thick sea ice. In early January of this year, sudden atmospheric warming over the central Arctic Ocean resulted in widespread and stronger winds over the Beaufort Gyre, a region of circulating ocean currents and sea ice within the central Arctic. This tight circulation normally keeps ice formed in winter largely within the Gyre, and leads to the build-up of thicker multi-year sea ice there. The strong winter winds caused by this 2021 atmospheric warming, however, strengthened and broadened the circulation of the Beaufort Gyre; causing some ice to be broadcast out of the Gyre into more southern and warmer regions of the Beaufort Sea. Much first-year sea ice was flushed from the region, as well as 8% of the Arctic’s scare remaining store of multiyear sea ice, the largest fraction ever recorded since observations began in 1984. It is unlikely this multiyear ice will survive the summer melt, further reducing the Arctic store of old ice; and accelerating the transition to an ice-free summer Arctic Ocean.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00221-8