An interesting recent paper from Dr. Son Nghiem at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues finds that the bottom of
the Arctic Ocean controls the pattern of sea ice thousands of
feet above on the water’s surface. The seafloor topography
exerts its control not only locally, in the Bering, Chukchi,
Beaufort, Barents and Greenland Seas, but also spanning hundreds
to thousands of miles across the Arctic Ocean. How? The seafloor
influences the distribution of cold and warm waters in the
Arctic Ocean where sea ice can preferentially grow or melt.
Geological features on the ocean bottom also guide how the sea
ice moves, along with influence from surface winds.
Interestingly, the study also links the bottom of the Arctic
Ocean with cloud patterns up in the sky. The ocean bottom
affects sea ice cover, which affects the amount of vapor coming
from the surface of the ocean out into the air, which in turn
influences cloud cover. The researchers, who also come from
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Applied P