Sea ice

Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats
on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density).
Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's
oceans.[1][2][3] Much of the world's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in
the Earth's polar regions: the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic
ice pack of the Southern Ocean. Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling
in surface extent, a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology,
including the ocean's ecosystems. Due to the action of winds, currents and
temperature fluctuations, sea ice is very dynamic, leading to a wide variety of ice
types and features. Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs, which are chunks of
Broken pieces of Arctic sea ice with a snow
ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean. Depending on location, sea ice cover.
expanses may also incorporate icebergs.

Contents
General features and dynamics
Fast ice versus drift (or pack) ice
Classification based on age
New ice, nilas and young ice
First-year sea ice
Old sea ice
Driving forces
Deformation
Leads and polynyas
Formation
Yearly freeze and melt cycle
Monitoring and observations
Relationship to global warming and climate change
Modelling
Ecology
See also
Ice types or features
Physics and chemistry
Applied sciences and engineering endeavours
References
Sea ice glossaries
External links

General features and dynamics

Sea ice does not simply grow and melt. During its
lifespan, it is very dynamic. Due to the combined
action of winds, currents, water temperature, and air
temperature fluctuations, sea ice expanses typically
undergo a significant amount of deformation. Sea ice
is classified according to whether or not it is able to
drift, and according to its age.
Hypothetical sea ice dynamics scenario showing some of the most
common sea ice features.
Fast ice versus drift (or pack) ice
Sea ice can be classified according to whether or not it
is attached (or frozen) to the shoreline (or between shoals or to grounded icebergs). If attached, it is called landfast ice, or more often,
fast ice (from fastened). Alternatively, and unlike fast ice, drift ice occurs further offshore in very wide areas, and encompasses ice that
is free to move with currents and winds. The physical boundary between fast ice and drift ice is the fast ice boundary. The drift ice zone
may be further divided into a shear zone, a marginal ice zone and a central pack.[4] Drift ice consists of floes, individual pieces of sea
ice 20 metres (66 ft) or more across. There are names for various floe sizes: small – 20 to 100 m (66 to 328 ft); medium – 100 to 500 m
(330 to 1,640 ft); big – 500 to 2,000 m (1,600 to 6,600 ft); vast – 2 to 10 kilometres (1.2 to 6.2 mi); and giant – more than 10 km
(6.2 mi).[5][6] The term pack ice is used either as a synonym to drift ice,[5] or to designate drift ice zone in which the floes are densely
packed.[5][6][7] The overall sea ice cover is termed the ice canopy from the perspective of submarine navigation.[6][7]

Classification based on age

Another classification used by scientists to describe sea ice is based on age, that is, on its development stages. These stages are: new ice,
nilas, young ice, first-year and old.[5][6][7]

New ice, nilas and young ice

New ice is a general term used for recently frozen sea water that does not yet make up solid
ice. It may consist of frazil ice (plates or spicules of ice suspended in water), slush (water
saturated snow), or shuga (spongy white ice lumps a few centimeters across). Other terms,
such as grease ice and pancake ice, are used for ice crystal accumulations under the action
of wind and waves.

Nilas designates a sea ice crust up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in thickness. It bends without
breaking around waves and swells. Nilas can be further subdivided into dark nilas – up to
5 cm (2.0 in) in thickness and very dark, and light nilas – over 5 cm (2.0 in) in thickness Nilas in Baffin Bay

and lighter in color.

Young ice is a transition stage between nilas and first-year ice, and ranges in thickness from 10 cm (3.9 in) to 30 cm (12 in), Young ice
can be further subdivided into grey ice – 10 cm (3.9 in) to 15 cm (5.9 in) in thickness, and grey-white ice – 15 cm (5.9 in) to 30 cm
(12 in) in thickness. Young ice is not as flexible as nilas, but tends to break under wave action. In a compression regime, it will either
raft (at the grey ice stage) or ridge (at the grey-white ice stage).

First-year sea ice

First-year sea ice is ice that is thicker than young ice but has no more than one year growth.
In other words, it is ice that grows in the fall and winter (after it has gone through the new
ice — nilas — young ice stages and grows further) but does not survive the spring and
summer months (it melts away). The thickness of this ice typically ranges from 0.3 m
(0.98 ft) to 2 m (6.6 ft).[5][6][7] First-year ice may be further divided into thin (30 cm
(0.98 ft) to 70 cm (2.3 ft)), medium (70 cm (2.3 ft) to 120 cm (3.9 ft)) and thick (>120 cm
(3.9 ft)).[6][7]

Old sea ice

Distinction between 1st year sea ice
Old sea ice is sea ice that has survived at least one melting season (i.e. one summer). For
(FY), 2nd year (SY), multiyear (MY)
this reason, this ice is generally thicker than first-year sea ice. Old ice is commonly divided
and old ice.
into two types: second-year ice, which has survived one melting season, and multiyear ice,
which has survived more than one. (In some sources,[5] old ice is more than 2-years old.)
Multi-year ice is much more common in the Arctic than it is in the Antarctic.[5][8] The reason for this is that sea ice in the south drifts
into warmer waters where it melts. In the Arctic, much of the sea ice is land-locked.

Driving forces
While fast ice is relatively stable (because it is attached to the shoreline or the seabed), drift (or pack) ice undergoes relatively complex
deformation processes that ultimately give rise to sea ice's typically wide variety of landscapes. Wind is thought to be the main driving
force along with ocean currents.[1][5] The Coriolis force and sea ice surface tilt have also been invoked.[5] These driving forces induce a
state of stress within the drift ice zone. An ice floe converging toward another and pushing against it will generate a state of
compression at the boundary between both. The ice cover may also undergo a state of tension, resulting in divergence and fissure
opening. If two floes drift sideways past each other while remaining in contact, this will create a state of shear.

Deformation
Sea ice deformation results from the interaction between ice floes, as they are driven against each other. The end result may be of three
types of features:[6][7] 1) Rafted ice, when one piece is overriding another; 2) Pressure ridges, a line of broken ice forced downward (to
make up the keel) and upward (to make the sail); and 3) Hummock, an hillock of broken ice that forms an uneven surface. A shear
ridge is a pressure ridge that formed under shear – it tends to be more linear than a ridge induced only by compression.[6][7] A new
ridge is a recent feature — it is sharp-crested, with its side sloping at an angle exceeding 40 degrees. In contrast, a weathered ridge is
one with a rounded crest and with sides sloping at less than 40 degrees.[6][7] Stamukhi are yet another type of pile-up but these are
grounded and are therefore relatively stationary. They result from the interaction between fast ice and the drifting pack ice.

Level ice is sea ice that has not been affected by deformation, and is therefore relatively flat.[6][7]

Leads and polynyas

Leads and polynyas are areas of open water that occur within sea ice expanses even though air temperatures are below freezing, and
provide a direct interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere, which is important for the wildlife. Leads are narrow and linear –
they vary in width from meter to km scale. During the winter, the water in leads quickly freezes up. They are also used for navigation
purposes – even when refrozen, the ice in leads is thinner, allowing icebreakers access to an easier sail path, and submarines to surface
more easily. Polynyas are more uniform in size than leads and are also larger – two types are recognized: 1) Sensible-heat polynyas,
caused by the upwelling of warmer water and 2) Latent-heat polynyas, resulting from persistent winds from the coastline.[5]

Aerial view showing an Aerial view showing an expanse of Aerial view showing an
expanse of drift ice drift ice in southeastern expanse of drift ice consisting
offshore Labrador Greenland, comprising loosely mostly of water. (Scale not
(Eastern Canada) packed floes of various sizes, with available.)
displaying floes of a lead developing in the centre.
various sizes loosely (Scale not available.)
packed, with open water
in several networks of
leads. (Scale not
available.)
 Close-up view inside a Example of hummocky Field example of a Aerial view
drift ice zone: several ice: an accumulation of pressure ridge. Only the of the
small rounded floes are ice blocks, here about sail (the part of the ridge Chukchi
separated from each 20 to 30 cm (7.9 to above the ice surface) is Sea
other by slush or grease 11.8 in) in thickness shown in this between
ice. (Bird at lower right (with a thin snow cover). photograph – the keel is Chukotka
for scale.) more difficult to and Alaska,
document. displaying a
pattern of
leads.
Much of the
open water
inside
those leads
is already
covered by
new ice
(indicated
by a slightly
lighter blue
color)(scale
not
available).

Formation
Only the top layer of water needs to cool to the freezing point.[9] Convection of the surface
layer involves the top 100–150 m (330–490 ft), down to the pycnocline of increased
density.

In calm water, the first sea ice to form on the surface is a skim of separate crystals which
initially are in the form of tiny discs, floating flat on the surface and of diameter less than
0.3 cm (0.12 in). Each disc has its c-axis vertical and grows outwards laterally. At a certain
point such a disc shape becomes unstable, and the growing isolated crystals take on a
hexagonal, stellar form, with long fragile arms stretching out over the surface. These
crystals also have their c-axis vertical. The dendritic arms are very fragile, and soon break Satellite image of sea ice forming
off, leaving a mixture of discs and arm fragments. With any kind of turbulence in the water, near St. Matthew Island in the
these fragments break up further into random-shaped small crystals which form a Bering Sea.
suspension of increasing density in the surface water, an ice type called frazil or grease ice.
In quiet conditions the frazil crystals soon freeze together to form a continuous thin sheet of
young ice; in its early stages, when it is still transparent — that is the ice called nilas. Once nilas has formed, a quite different growth
process occurs, in which water freezes on to the bottom of the existing ice sheet, a process called congelation growth. This growth
process yields first-year ice.

In rough water, fresh sea ice is formed by the cooling of the ocean as heat is lost into the atmosphere. The uppermost layer of the ocean
is supercooled to slightly below the freezing point, at which time tiny ice platelets (frazil ice) form. With time, this process leads to a
mushy surface layer, known as grease ice. Frazil ice formation may also be started by snowfall, rather than supercooling. Waves and
wind then act to compress these ice particles into larger plates, of several meters in diameter, called pancake ice. These float on the
ocean surface, and collide with one another, forming upturned edges. In time, the pancake ice plates may themselves be rafted over one
another or frozen together into a more solid ice cover, known as consolidated pancake ice. Such ice has a very rough appearance on top
and bottom.
If sufficient snow falls on sea ice to depress the freeboard below sea level, sea water will flow in and a layer of ice will form of mixed
snow/sea water. This is particularly common around Antarctica.

Russian scientist Vladimir Vize (1886–1954) devoted his life to study the Arctic ice pack and developed the Scientific Prediction of Ice
Conditions Theory, for which he was widely acclaimed in academic circles. He applied this theory in the field in the Kara Sea, which led
to the discovery of Vize Island.

Yearly freeze and melt cycle

The annual freeze and melt cycle is set by the annual cycle of solar insolation and of ocean
and atmospheric temperature, and of variability in this annual cycle.

In the Arctic, the area of ocean covered by sea ice increases over winter from a minimum in
September to a maximum in March or sometimes February, before melting over the
summer. In the Antarctic, where the seasons are reversed, the annual minimum is typically
in February and the annual maximum in September or October, and the presence of sea ice
abutting the calving fronts of ice shelves has been shown to influence glacier flow and
potentially the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.[11][12]
Seasonal variation and annual
The growth and melt rate are also affected by the state of the ice itself. During growth, the decrease of Arctic sea ice volume
ice thickening due to freezing (as opposed to dynamics) is itself dependent on the thickness, as estimated by measurement
so that the ice growth slows as the ice thickens.[5] Likewise, during melt, thinner sea ice backed numerical modelling.[10]
melts faster. This leads to different behaviour between multiyear and first year ice. In
addition, melt ponds on the ice surface during the melt season lower the albedo such that
more solar radiation is absorbed, leading to a feedback where melt is accelerated. The
presence of melt ponds is affected by the permeability of the sea ice- i.e. whether meltwater
can drain- and the topography of the sea ice surface, i.e. the presence of natural basins for
the melt ponds to form in. First year ice is flatter than multiyear ice due to the lack of
dynamic ridging, so ponds tend to have greater area. They also have lower albedo since they
are on thinner ice, which blocks less of the solar radiation from reaching the dark ocean
below. [13]

Volume of arctic sea ice over time

Monitoring and observations using a polar coordinate system
Changes in sea ice conditions are best demonstrated by the rate of melting over time. A draw method (time goes counter
composite record of Arctic ice demonstrates that the floes' retreat began around 1900, clockwise; one cycle per year)

experiencing more rapid melting beginning within the past 50 years. Satellite study of sea
ice began in 1979, and became a much more reliable measure of long-term changes in sea ice. In comparison to the extended record,
the sea-ice extent in the polar region by September 2007 was only half the recorded mass that had been estimated to exist within the
1950–1970 period.[14]

Arctic sea ice extent ice hit an all-time low in September 2012, when the ice was determined to cover only 24% of the Arctic Ocean,
offsetting the previous low of 29% in 2007. Predictions of when the first "ice free" Arctic summer might occur vary.

Antarctic sea ice extent gradually increased in the period of satellite observations, which began in 1979, until a rapid decline in
southern hemisphere spring of 2016.

Relationship to global warming and climate change

Sea ice provides an ecosystem for various polar species, particularly the polar bear, whose environment is being threatened as global
warming causes the ice to melt more as the Earth's temperature gets warmer. Furthermore, the sea ice itself functions to help keep
polar climates cool, since the ice exists in expansive enough amounts to maintain a cold environment. At this, sea ice's relationship with
global warming is cyclical; the ice helps to maintain cool climates, but as the global temperature increases, the ice melts, and is less
effective in keeping those climates cold. The bright, shiny surface (albedo) of the ice also serves a role in maintaining cooler polar
temperatures by reflecting much of the sunlight that hits it back into space. As the sea ice melts, its surface area shrinks, diminishing
the size of the reflective surface and therefore causing the earth to absorb more of the sun's heat. As the ice melts it lowers the albedo
thus causing more heat to be absorbed by the Earth and further increase the amount of melting ice.[15] Though the size of the ice floes is
affected by the seasons, even a small change in global temperature can greatly affect the amount of sea ice, and due to the shrinking
reflective surface that keeps the ocean cool, this sparks a cycle of ice shrinking and temperatures warming. As a result, the polar regions
are the most susceptible places to climate change on the planet.[5]
Furthermore, sea ice affects the movement of ocean waters. In the freezing
process, much of the salt in ocean water is squeezed out of the frozen crystal
formations, though some remains frozen in the ice. This salt becomes trapped
beneath the sea ice, creating a higher concentration of salt in the water beneath
ice floes. This concentration of salt contributes to the salinated water's density,
and this cold, denser water sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This cold water
moves along the ocean floor towards the equator, while warmer water on the
ocean surface moves in the direction of the poles. This is referred to as "conveyor
belt motion", and is a regularly occurring process.[5]

As ice melts, the liquid water collects in

depressions on the surface and deepens

them, forming these melt ponds in the Arctic.

These fresh water ponds are separated from
the salty sea below and around it, until breaks
in the ice merge the two.

Change in extent of the Sea ice off Baffin Island. Sea ice imitates the
Arctic Sea ice between shoreline along the
April and August, in Kamchatka Peninsula.
2013.

Clear view of the The Earth showing the

Antarctic Peninsula, the annual minimum sea ice
Larsen Ice Shelf, and with a graph overlay
the sea ice-covered showing the annual
waters around the minimum sea ice area in
region. millions of square
kilometers.

Modelling
In order to gain a better understanding about the variability, numerical sea ice models are used to perform sensitivity studies. The two
main ingredients are the ice dynamics and the thermodynamical properties (see Sea ice emissivity modelling, Sea ice growth processes
and Sea ice thickness).

Many global climate models (GCMs) have sea ice implemented in their numerical simulation scheme in order to capture the Ice-albedo
feedback correctly. Examples include:

The Louvain-la-Neuve Sea Ice Model is a numerical model of sea ice designed for climate studies and operational oceanography
developed at Université catholique de Louvain. It is coupled to the ocean general circulation model OPA (Ocean Parallélisé) and is
freely available as a part of the Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean.
The MIT General Circulation Model is a global circulation model developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology includes a
package for sea-ice. The code is freely available there.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research develops the Community Sea Ice Model.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory has a project called Los Alamos Sea Ice Model. The project is open source and designed as
a component of GCM, although it provides a standalone mode.
The Finite-Element Sea-Ice Ocean Model developed at Alfred Wegener Institute uses an unstructured grid.
The Coupled model intercomparison project offers a standard protocol for studying the output of coupled atmosphere-ocean general
circulation models. The coupling takes place at the atmosphere-ocean interface where the sea ice may occur.
In addition to global modeling, various regional models deal with sea ice. Regional models are employed for seasonal forecasting
experiments and for process studies.

Ecology
Sea ice is part of the Earth's biosphere. When sea water freezes, the ice is riddled with brine-filled channels which sustain sympagic
organisms such as bacteria, algae, copepods and annelids, which in turn provide food for animals such as krill and specialised fish like
the Bald notothen, fed upon in turn by larger animals such as Emperor penguins and Minke whales.[16]

A decline of seasonal sea ice puts the survival of Arctic species such as ringed seals and polar bears at risk.[17][18][19]

See also

Ice types or features

Anchor ice
Congelation ice
Drift ice
Fast ice
Finger rafting
Frazil ice
Grease ice
Iceberg
Ice mélange
Ice volcano Rare phenomena – the formation of
Lead (sea ice) ball ice. Stroomi Beach, Tallinn,
Pancake ice Estonia.
Polynya
Pressure ridge (ice)
Rotten ice
Seabed gouging by ice
Slush
Stamukha
Zastruga

Physics and chemistry

Decline of sea ice Sea ice
Ice Sea ice growth processes
Ice crystals Seawater
Ice Ih

Applied sciences and engineering endeavours

Drift ice station Measurement of sea ice
Drift station Sea ice concentration
Ice class Sea ice emissivity modelling
Icebreaker Sea ice thickness
Ice navigation Zhubov scale

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Sea ice glossaries

"Cryosphere Glossary" (http://nsidc.org/cgi-bin/words/glossary.pl). National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado,
Boulder.
"Ice Glossary" (http://www.ec.gc.ca/glaces-ice/default.asp?lang=En&n=501D72C1-1). Environment Canada.
"WMO Sea-Ice Nomenclature" (http://www.jcomm.info/components/com_oe/oe.php?task=download&id=27226&
version=March%202014&lang=1&format=1). World Meteorological Organization. WMO/OMM/ВМО — No. 259 • Edition
 1970–2004.

External links
Cryosphere today: Current sea ice conditions from the University of Illinois (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/)
Daily Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 sea ice maps from the University of Bremen (http://www.iup.uni-
bremen.de:8084/amsr2/)
"National Snow and Ice Data Center" (http://nsidc.org). University of Colorado, Boulder.

Sea Ice Index (http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/)

Global Sea Ice Extent and Concentration: What sensors on satellites are telling us about sea ice (http://nsidc.org
/sotc/sea_ice.html)