If it doesn’t melt in summer, Arctic pack ice can survive for several years. Especially in the coastal regions of Canada, you can still find ice that’s at least four years old (see figures). In the course of its life, winter growth steadily makes the ice thicker. In addition, ice motion constantly creates new pressure ridges. As a result, very old ice is significantly thicker than young ice, is characterised by a cracked and scored surface, and features deeper snow cover. Thanks to these qualities, older ice also offers far more ecological diversity than does younger ice. In addition, it is more resistant to short-term atmospheric and oceanic fluctuations.
But in contrast to parameters like sea-ice cover or thickness, sea-ice age can’t be directly derived from satellite data; estimating it requires a combination of different methods. First the ice has to be tracked back to its point of origin using satellite-based drift data. Once this point has been determined, its age can be estimated. You can read more about this at our Data Portal.
As Dr Thomas Krumpen, a sea-ice physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, adds: “With the summertime loss of ice cover and rising temperatures, we can see a clear trend toward younger, thinner sea ice. A growing percentage of the ice doesn’t even survive the first summer after its formation. As a result, the Arctic is increasingly dominated by first-year ice, which has substantial impacts on its ecosystems and on energy flows between the ocean and atmosphere. Consequently, monitoring and analysing sea-ice age remains a critical aspect of polar research, so as to understand the ongoing changes and their effects on the Arctic.”
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