Seasonal and Interannual Variations in Arctic Sea Ice Motion

摘要

Passive microwave satellite data (Special Sensor Microwave Imager, SSM/I) from 1988 to 1994 are used to map the ice motion in the Arctic. Overall mean, seasonal mean, and mean annual depictions of this ice motion make it possible for the first to demonstrate the dramatic space-time variations in Arctic ice currents. Interannual fluctuations are surprisingly large and contribute significantly to the overall heat and mass budgets of the Arctic sea ice. The analysis is being repeated with a 20-year time series constructed from the SMM/I and the earlier Scanning Multi-channel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) to determine if the ice motion variability seen in the 1988-94 data are representative of the longer time period.