Science Source

Increasing Transnational Sea Ice Exchange in a Changing Arctic Ocean

States that most ice melts locally: only about 21% is exported from the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in which it is formed; however, that export amounts to about 1,000,000 km2 each year
States that as ice cover has thinned and the summer sea ice has retreated in a warming Arctic:
- Formation and melt locations have moved further north
- Ice drifts have accelerated
- Area of ice formation and melt has increased
Uses data from satellite images to examine ice formation and transport between the EEZs of the Arctic nations, and broke the record into two periods: 1988–1999 and 2000–2014
Finds that as the Arctic warms, more ice is transported between EEZs and it is arriving at the receiving EEZ faster, than in the past
Results show that exchanges of ice have increased as a consequence