Arctic sea ice is thinning and retreating because of global warming. Thus, the region is transitioning to a new state featuring an expansion of the marginal ice zone – a region where sea ice interacts with the open ocean. A new paper published in EGUsphere explores how accurate the Global Ocean Reanalysis Ensemble Product (GREP) is in predicting present-day and recent past Arctic sea ice states.
In their study, Cocetta, F., Zampieri, L., Selivanova, J., and Iovino, D. compare and validate GREP against state-of-the-art regional reanalyses and observational datasets of sea ice concentration and thickness. The analysis presents pan-Arctic metrics and highlights different responses of ice classes, marginal ice zone (MIZ) and pack ice to climate changes.
The results of the study show that GREP provides reliable estimates, properly reproducing interannual variability and linear trends in the marginal ice zone area. By analyzing 30 years of sea ice reconstructions that combine numerical models and observations, this paper demonstrates that GREP is an adequate tool for investigating the changing Arctic sea ice cover and, consequently, for gaining an improved understanding of the Arctic sea ice.
Curious to learn more?
The paper is available in Open Access in The Cryosphere journal:
ObsSea4Clim 