Definition
Sea ice is frozen ocean water that floats on the surface of the sea.
Introduction
In the northern winter, sea ice is found over the entire Arctic Ocean and the peripheral seas such as Hudson Bay, Davis Strait, Barents Sea, and the Bering Sea. More southerly seas also have some ice in the winter such as the Sea of Okhosk or the Gulf of Bothnia. In the summer, ice is found just in the Arctic Ocean and the seas within it, such as the Beaufort, the Chukchi, the East Siberian, the Laptev, and, to a lesser extent, the Kara and Barents seas. It is also found in the passages of the Canadian Archipelago, and along the east coast of Greenland. The typical extent of all winter sea ice in the northern hemisphere is 15.6 × 106 km2 and in the summer it is 6.7 × 106 km2 (1979–2008, NSIDC Sea Ice Index, Fetterer et al., 2002). Major changes have been observed recently in the age, thickness, extent, and circulation of Arctic sea ice.
Typical age and thickness
Sea ice ranges in thickness from...
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Lindsay, R. (2011). Thinning of Arctic Sea Ice. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P., Haritashya, U.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2642-2_576
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