Spatial-temporal variation of sea ice in the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica from 1989 to 2018

Abstract:

Based on the sea ice concentration data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, the distribution and trend of sea ice in the Bransfield Strait in recent 30 years are analyzed. The results show that the sea ice in Bransfield Strait is dominated by one-year ice, reaches the lowest in February and reaches the highest in August. There is obvious correlation between the years with low sea ice concentration and the strong El Niño years in the historical years.The trend of sea ice concentration in the Bransfield Strait in recent 30 years shows that the freezing month of sea ice was generally delayed and the sea ice concentration was mainly reduced.The analysis on ice concentration in three typical stations shows, the correlation between the sea ice in Bransfield Strait (Station A) and the sea ice in the north of the Strait mouth (Station B) is strong, while the correlation with the sea ice in the south of Bransfield Strait near the Weddell Sea (Station C) is weak.The recurrent neural network (RNN) model can be used to predict and analyze temporal variation in sea ice concentration, particularly in the years with low ice concentration level.