Regime shift in Arctic Ocean sea ice thickness

Abstract Manifestations of climate change are often shown as gradual changes in physical or biogeochemical properties 1 . Components of the climate system, however, can show stepwise shifts from one regime to another, as a nonlinear response of the system to a changing forcing 2 . Here we show that the Arctic sea ice regime shifted in 2007 from thicker and deformed to thinner and more uniform ice cover. Continuous sea ice monitoring in the Fram Strait over the last three decades revealed the shift. After the shift, the fraction of thick and deformed ice dropped by half and has not recovered to date. The timing of the shift was preceded by a two-step reduction in residence time of sea ice in the Arctic Basin,…

• EC
  European Commission

  Award: 101003826
• NF
  Norges Forskningsråd

  Award: 286971
• NP
  Norsk Polarinstitutt