NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN ARCTIC ICE REGIONAL CLIMATOLOGY AND CHARACTERISTICS

摘要

In recent years major changes have occurred in the ice morphology of the Arctic Ocean. We examine these with special reference to the results of a submarine cruise carried out in September 1996 in the Greenland Sea and the Eurasian Basin, extending as far as the North Pole, which has shown an unusually open ice cover with low mean drafts, large amounts of open water, and little deep pressure ridging. Comparisons with data obtained from the same region in October 1976 show that mean ice draft has declined by 43% and that the decline can largely be ascribed to a loss of the thickest ice.