Although Arctic sea ice extent and variability of the past 40-50 years is well known, the processes that influence the stability of Arctic sea ice, as well as the stratification of the Arctic ocean, are poorly resolved. At the same time, little is known about past sea ice variability, or how this variability has influenced ice masses such as the Greenland ice sheet.
This session focuses on the interplay and feedbacks between land ice, sea ice and ocean in the polar regions. Sediment records and ice cores can help identify past changes in both land and sea ice, and several new proxies of paleo sea ice extent are under development. Further, the representation of sea ice extent and its variability in coupled climate models is improving and can help us understand the interplay between the ocean, sea ice, atmosphere and land ice.
In this interdisciplinary session hosted by the ERC SyG project ice2ice we invite contributions from scientists working in the field of Arctic ocean, atmosphere an cryosphere to discuss past, present and future sea ice variability and their implications for climate as well as the mass balance of land based ice sheets.