Spatiotemporal Pattern of Ice Concentration in the Chukchi Sea

V. V. Plotnikov, N. M. Vakul’skaya, V. A. Dubina, O. N. Rudenko,
and V. I. Pustoshnova

The seasonal and long-term variability of sea ice concentration in the Chukchi Sea in 1997–2016 was analyzed using all available satellite data on sea ice conditions. It is shown that the zone of maximum variability is situated in the areas with the ice concentration equal to (4–6)/10 and follows the displacements of this area: it moves to the north in the first half of the warm season (June–November) and moves back to the south in the second half of the period. The analysis of spectral components for the first three empirical orthogonal functions of sea ice concentration revealed quasiperiodic components with the periods of about 2–4 and 6–8 years.