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1. An Overview of Antarctic Sea Ice in the Community Earth System Model version 2, Part I: Analysis of the Seasonal Cycle in the Context of Sea Ice Thermodynamics and Coupled Atmosphere‐Ocean‐Ice Processes

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2020MS002143  

   Singh, Hansi K. ; Landrum, Laura ; Holland, Marika M. ; Bailey, David A. ; DuVivier, Alice K. ( January 2020 , Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems)

   We assess Antarctic sea ice climatology and variability in version 2 of the Community Earth System Model (CESM2), and compare it to that in the older CESM1 and (where appropriate) real-world observations. In CESM2, Antarctic sea ice is thinner and less extensive than in CESM1, though sea ice area is still approximately 1 million km2 greater in CESM2 than in present-day observations. Though there is less Antarctic sea ice in CESM2, the annual cycle of ice growth and melt is more vigorous in CESM2 than in CESM1. A new mushy-layer thermodynamics formulation implemented in the latest version of the Community Ice Code (CICE) in CESM2 accounts for both greater frazil ice forma- tion in coastal polynyas and more snow-to-ice conversion near the edge of the ice pack in the new model. Greater winter ice divergence in CESM2 (relative to CESM1) is due to stronger stationary wave activity and greater wind stress curl over the ice pack. Greater wind stress curl, in turn, drives more warm water upwelling under the ice pack, thinning it and decreasing its extent. Overall, differences between Antarctic sea ice in CESM2 and CESM1 arise due to both differences in their sea ice thermodynamics formulations, and differences in their coupled atmosphere-ocean states. 

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2. Submesoscale Sea Ice-Ocean Interactions in Marginal Ice Zones: SUBMESOSCALE SEA ICE-OCEAN INTERACTIONS

   https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JC012895  

   Manucharyan, Georgy E. ; Thompson, Andrew F. ( December 2017 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)
3. Automated Detection and Depth Determination of Melt Ponds on Sea Ice in ICESat-2 ATLAS Data—The Density-Dimension Algorithm for Bifurcating Sea-Ice Reflectors (DDA-Bifurcate-Seaice)

   https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2023.3268073  

   Herzfeld, Ute Christina ; Trantow, Thomas M. ; Han, Huilin ; Buckley, Ellen ; Farrell, Sinéad Louise ; Lawson, Matthew ( April 2023 , IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing)

   As climate warms and the transition from a perennial to a seasonal Arctic sea-ice cover is imminent, understanding melt ponding is central to understanding changes in the new Arctic. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) has the capacity to provide measurements and monitoring of the onset of melt in the Arctic and on melt progression. Yet ponds are currently not identified on the ICESat-2 standard sea-ice products, in which only a single surface is determined. The objective of this article is to introduce a mathematical algorithm that facilitates automated detection of melt ponds in the ICESat-2 Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) data, retrieval of two surface heights, pond surface and bottom, and measurements of depth and width of melt ponds. With ATLAS, ICESat-2 carries the first spaceborne multibeam micropulse photon-counting laser altimeter system, operating at 532-nm frequency. ATLAS data are recorded as clouds of discrete photon points. The Density-Dimension Algorithm for bifurcating sea-ice reflectors (DDA-bifurcate-seaice) is an autoadaptive algorithm that solves the problem of pond detection near the 0.7-m nominal along-track spacing of ATLAS data, utilizing the radial basis function for calculation of a density field and a threshold function that automatically adapts to changes in the background, apparent surface reflectance, and some instrument effects. The DDA-bifurcate-seaice is applied to large ICESat-2 datasets from the 2019 and 2020 melt seasons in the multiyear Arctic sea-ice region. Results are evaluated by comparison with those from a manually forced algorithm. 

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4. Mid-Winter Breakout of Landfast Sea Ice and Major Storm Leads to Significant Ice Push Event Along Chukchi Sea Coastline

   https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.00344  

   Bogardus, Reyce ; Maio, Christopher ; Mason, Owen ; Buzard, Richard ; Mahoney, Andrew ; de Wit, Cary ( August 2020 , Frontiers in Earth Science)
5. Sea-ice production and air/ice/ocean/biogeochemistry interactions in the Ross Sea during the PIPERS 2017 autumn field campaign

   https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.31  

   Ackley, S. F. ; Stammerjohn, S. ; Maksym, T. ; Smith, M. ; Cassano, J. ; Guest, P. ; Tison, J.-L. ; Delille, B. ; Loose, B. ; Sedwick, P. ; et al ( September 2020 , Annals of Glaciology)

   Abstract The Ross Sea is known for showing the greatest sea-ice increase, as observed globally, particularly from 1979 to 2015. However, corresponding changes in sea-ice thickness and production in the Ross Sea are not known, nor how these changes have impacted water masses, carbon fluxes, biogeochemical processes and availability of micronutrients. The PIPERS project sought to address these questions during an autumn ship campaign in 2017 and two spring airborne campaigns in 2016 and 2017. PIPERS used a multidisciplinary approach of manned and autonomous platforms to study the coupled air/ice/ocean/biogeochemical interactions during autumn and related those to spring conditions. Unexpectedly, the Ross Sea experienced record low sea ice in spring 2016 and autumn 2017. The delayed ice advance in 2017 contributed to (1) increased ice production and export in coastal polynyas, (2) thinner snow and ice cover in the central pack, (3) lower sea-ice Chl- a burdens and differences in sympagic communities, (4) sustained ocean heat flux delaying ice thickening and (5) a melting, anomalously southward ice edge persisting into winter. Despite these impacts, airborne observations in spring 2017 suggest that winter ice production over the continental shelf was likely not anomalous. 

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