Global warming leading to alarming recession of the Arctic sea-ice cover: Insights from remote sensing observations and model reanalysis

The present study quantifies the magnitude of Arctic sea-ice loss in the boreal summer (July–September), especially in September at different timescales (daily, monthly, annual and decadal). The investigation on the accelerated decline in the Arctic sea-ice was performed using different datasets of passive microwave satellite imagery and model reanalysis. Arctic sea-ice declined rapidly in the boreal summer (-10.2 ± 0.8 %decade(−1)) during 1979–2018, while, the highest decline in sea-ice extent (SIE) (i.e., 82,300 km(2) yr(−1)/-12.8 ± 1.1 %decade(−1)) is reported in the month of September. Since late 1979, the SIE recorded the sixth-lowest decline during September 2018 (4.71 million km(2)). Incidentally, the records of twelve lowest extents in the satellite era occurred in the last twelve years. The loss of SIE and sea-ice concentration (SIC) are attributed to the impacts of land-ocean warming and the northward heat advection into the Arctic Ocean. This has resulted in considerable thinning of sea-ice thickness (SIT) and reduction in the multiyear ice (MYI) for summer 2018. Global and Arctic land-ocean temperatures have increased by ~0.78 °C and ~3.1 °C, respectively, over the past 40 years (1979–2018) while substantial warming rates have been identified in the Arctic Ocean (~3.5 °C in the last 40-year) relative to the Arctic land (~2.8 °C in the last 40-year). The prevailing ocean-atmospheric warming in the Arctic, the SIE, SIC and SIT have reduced, resulting in the decline of the sea-ice volume (SIV) at the rate of -3.0 ± 0.2 (1000 km(3) decade(−1)). Further, it observed that the SIV in September 2018 was three times lower than September 1979. The present study demonstrates the linkages of sea-ice dynamics to ice drifting and accelerated melting due to persistent low pressure, high air-ocean temperatures, supplemented by the coupled ocean-atmospheric forcing.