It emphasises that there is a strong internal relationship between the
formation, stability and extent of
sea ‐
ice and the structure of the upper layer of the
Arctic ocean: it is the relative area and depth of low - salinity
arctic water above the halocline that are paramount to
ice formation and its summer survival.
To summarise the arguments presented so far concerning
ice - loss in the
arctic basin, at least four mechanisms must be recognised: (i) a momentum - induced slowing of winter
ice formation, (ii) upward heat - flux from anomalously warm Atlantic water through the surface low ‐ salinity layer below the
ice, (iii) wind patterns that cause the export of anomalous amounts of drift
ice through the Fram Straits and disperse pack -
ice in the western basin and (iv) the anomalous flux of warm Bering
Sea water into the eastern
Arctic of the mid 1990s.