Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Antarctic sea ice has changed significantly over the past four decades; yet limited understanding of fundamental processes, including its seasonal cycle, hinders our ability to interpret these changes. Here, we examine the processes determining the moment when sea ice locally disappears each spring, defined as the retreat date, using satellite observations over 1994–2020. We find that climatological retreat date is driven by sea ice melt in most of the seasonal ice zone and strongly constrained by the seasonal maximum ice thickness. Ice removal due to drifting ice export predominantly drives retreat only in coastal polynyas. At interannual timescales, retreat date anomalies are also preconditioned by prior maximum ice thickness, which affects melt‐driven spring ice loss through the ice‐albedo feedback, though this effect appears limited to specific regions. Winds emerge as a primary driver of interannual variability in the retreat date, influencing both drift‐ and melt‐related spring ice removal processes.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters
DOI: 10.1029/2025gl114764
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, NORCE Research AS, Institut polytechnique de Grenoble, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique, Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Université de Toulouse
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,190
OpenAlex ID: W4410376535