The Variability of Arctic Sea Ice Extent from Spring to Summer and Its Linkage to the Decline of SIE in September

Abstract

The satellite record analysis for monthly differences of Arctic sea ice extent (SIE) shows that the most significant accelerated monthly sea ice reduction occurred between June and July although, on average, the largest sea ice reduction occurred between July and August. The monthly difference of June minus July (JJ) SIE has the strongest correlation with September SIE, with a correlation coefficient of −0.786 (original time series) and −0.625 (detrended time series) at confidence level of 99%. Furthermore, it is found that the correlation coefficient between JJ SIE and July minus August (JA) SIE is so low (0.068) that they can be thought to be independent from each other, considering that the JA SIE is also significantly negatively correlated to September SIE. A simple regression forecasting model for September SIE was established using monthly SIE differences for the JJ and JA. This study also shows that the JJ SIE is significantly correlated not only with sea level pressure (SLP) in polar regions and midlatitudes over eastern Atlantic in July, a pattern which resembles the negative phase of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), but also with sea surface temperature (SST) in midlatitudes over central North Pacific in the preceding spring.