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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L11501, doi:10.1029/2008GL034007, 2008

Sunlight, water, and ice: Extreme Arctic sea ice melt during the summer of 2007

Donald K. Perovich

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA


Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA


Kathleen F. Jones

Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA


Bonnie Light

Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, Seattle, Washington, USA


Abstract

The summer extent of the Arctic sea ice cover, widely recognized as an indicator of climate change, has been declining for the past few decades reaching a record minimum in September 2007. The causes of the dramatic loss have implications for the future trajectory of the Arctic sea ice cover. Ice mass balance observations demonstrate that there was an extraordinarily large amount of melting on the bottom of the ice in the Beaufort Sea in the summer of 2007. Calculations indicate that solar heating of the upper ocean was the primary source of heat for this observed enhanced Beaufort Sea bottom melting. An increase in the open water fraction resulted in a 500% positive anomaly in solar heat input to the upper ocean, triggering an ice–albedo feedback and contributing to the accelerating ice retreat.

Received 15 March 2008; accepted 2 May 2008; published 3 June 2008.

Keywords: sea ice; ice albedo feedback.

Index Terms: 0750 Cryosphere: Sea ice (4540); 0762 Cryosphere: Mass balance (1218, 1223); 0764 Cryosphere: Energy balance.

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Citation: Perovich, D. K., J. A. Richter-Menge, K. F. Jones, and B. Light (2008), Sunlight, water, and ice: Extreme Arctic sea ice melt during the summer of 2007, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L11501, doi:10.1029/2008GL034007.