2013/02/20 by Seymour W. Laxon, Katharine Giles, A. Ridout +12 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Arctic #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Arctic ice pack #Climate change and permafrost #Climatology #Cryospheric studies and observations #Data assimilation #Environmental science #Geography #Geology #Meteorology #Oceanography #Physical geography #Satellite #Sea ice #The arctic #Volume (thermodynamics)
paper · doi:10.1002/grl.50193
openalex publication_date 2013/02/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Satellite records show a decline in ice extent over more than three decades, with a record minimum in September 2012. Results from the Pan‐Arctic Ice‐Ocean Modelling and Assimilation system (PIOMAS) suggest that the decline in extent has been accompanied by a decline in volume, but this has not been confirmed by data. Using new data from the European Space Agency CryoSat‐2 (CS‐2) mission, validated with in situ data, we generate estimates of ice volume for the winters of 2010/11 and 2011/12. We compare these data with current estimates from PIOMAS and earlier (2003–8) estimates from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ICESat mission. Between the ICESat and CryoSat‐2 periods, the autumn volume declined by 4291 km 3 and the winter volume by 1479 km 3 . This exceeds the decline in ice volume in the central Arctic from the PIOMAS model of 2644 km 3 in the autumn, but is less than the 2091 km 3 in winter, between the two time periods.