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  • RESEARCH BRIEFINGS

An abrupt decline of thick sea ice in the Arctic Ocean

Long-term sea-ice measurements from the Fram Strait reveal that the dominant form of Arctic sea ice shifted around 2007, from thick and deformed ice to thinner, more uniform ice. As a result of this shift, the proportion of thick, deformed ice fell by about half. It has not yet recovered, and this is expected to affect heat and momentum exchange in the region.

This is a summary of: Sumata, H. et al. Regime shift in Arctic Ocean sea ice thickness. Nature 615, 443–449 (2023).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00317-5

‘Expert opinion’ and the figure are published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

References

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