Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean. It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer. Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few metres thick. This is in contrast to ice shelves, which are formed by glaciers, float in the sea, and are up to a kilometer thick. There are two subdivisions of sea ice: fast ice, which is attached to land; and ice floes, which are not. Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow. As a result, melt ponds are rarely observed. On average, Antarctic sea ice is younger, thinner, warmer, saltier, and more mobile than Arctic sea ice. It is not as well-studied as Arctic ice, which is more accessible.
Measurements of sea ice
Extent
The Antarctic sea ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter. It peaks during September, which marks the end of austral winter, and retreats to a minimum in February. Consequently, most Antarctic sea ice is first year ice, a few metres thick, but the exact thickness is not known. The area of 18 million km^2 of ice is 18 trillion square metres, so for each metre of thickness, given that the density of ice is about 0.88 teratonnes/million km^3, the mass of the top metre of Antarctic sea ice is roughly 16 teratonnes in late winter. Since the ocean off the Antarctic coast usually is much warmer than the air over it, the extent of the sea ice is largely controlled by the winds and currents that push it northwards. If it is pushed quickly, the ice can travel much further north before it melts. Most ice is formed along the coast, as the northward-moving ice leaves areas of open water, which rapidly freeze.
Thickness
Because Antarctic ice is mainly first-year ice, which is not as thick as multiyear ice, it is generally less than a few meters thick. Snowfall and flooding of the ice can thicken it substantially, and the layer structure of Antarctic ice is often quite complex.
Recent changes in wind patterns, which are connected to regional changes in the number of extratropical cyclones and anticyclones, around Antarctica have advected the sea ice farther north in some areas and not as far north in others. The net change is a slight increase in the area of sea ice in the Antarctic seas. Increased sea ice extent does not indicate that the Southern Ocean is cooling, since the Southern Ocean is warming. The IPCC AR5 report concluded that "it is very likely" that annual mean Antarctic sea ice extent increased 1.2 to 1.8% per decade, which is 0.13 to 0.20 million km2 per decade, during the period 1979 to 2012. IPCC AR5 also concluded that the lack of data precludes determining the trend in total volume or mass of the sea ice. The increase in sea ice area probably has a number of causes. These are tied to changes in the southern hemispheric westerly winds, which are a combination of natural variability and forced change from greenhouse gases and the ozone hole. Another possible driver is ice-shelves melting, which increases freshwater input to the ocean; this increases the weakly stratified ocean surface layer and so reduces the ability of warm subsurface water to reach the surface. A 2015 study found this effect in climate models run to simulate future climate change, resulting in an increase of sea ice in the winter months. Atmospheric and oceanic drivers likely have contributed to the formation of regionally varying trends in Antarctic sea-ice extent. For example, temperatures in the atmosphere and Southern Ocean have increased during the period 1979–2004. However, sea ice grows faster than it melts, because of a weakly stratified Ocean. Thus, this oceanic mechanism is, among others, contributing to an increase in the net ice production, potentially resulting in more sea ice. Although thickness observations are limited, modelling suggests that observed ice-drift toward the coastal regions makes an additional contribution for dynamical sea-ice thickening during autumn and winter. Observed autumn and spring trends in the number of extratropical cyclones, anticyclones and blocks, which have a strong thermodynamic control through temperature advection, and a strong dynamic control through ice-drift, on sea-ice extent during the same and also during following seasons are almost everywhere around Antarctica in agreement with the observed, regionally varying, trends in sea-ice extent. Consequently, the near-surface winds steered around weather systems are thought to explain large parts of the inhomogeneous Antarctica sea-ice trends. After gradual increases in sea ice as referenced above, southern hemisphere spring 2016 saw a rapid decline in Antarctic sea ice.
Implications
Monitoring changes in sea ice is important as this impacts the psychrophiles that live here. Changes in Antarctic sea ice are also important because of implications for atmospheric and oceanic circulation. When sea ice forms, it rejects salt so dense salty water is formed which sinks and plays a key role in formation of Antarctic Bottom Water.
Effects on Navigation
The force of moving ice is considerable; it can crush ships that are caught in the ice pack, and severely limits the areas where ships can reach the land, even in summer. Icebreakers, iceports and ice piers are used to land supplies.
