Increasing Multiyear Sea Ice Loss in the Beaufort Sea: A New Export Pathway for the Diminishing Multiyear Ice Cover of the Arctic Ocean | CU Experts

Historically multiyear sea ice (MYI) covered a majority of the Arctic; and circulated through the Beaufort Gyre for years. However, increased; ice melt in the Beaufort Sea during the early-2000s was proposed to have; severed this circulation. Constructing a regional MYI budget from; 1997-2021 reveals that MYI import into the Beaufort Sea has increased; year-round, yet less MYI now survives through summer and is transported; onwards in the Gyre. Annual average MYI loss quadrupled over the study; period and increased from ~7% to ~33%; of annual Fram Strait MYI export, while the peak in 2018 (385,000; km^2) was similar to Fram Strait MYI export. An accelerating; ice-albedo feedback coupled with dynamic conditioning towards younger; thinner MYI is responsible for the increased MYI loss. MYI transport; through the Beaufort Gyre has not been severed, but it has been reduced; so severely to prevent it from being redistributed throughout the Arctic; Ocean

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