Icebergs are a mechanism via which the cryosphere and ocean interact. Here we analyzed ice samples from both Arctic and Antarctic polar regions to assess the variability in the composition of calved ice. Our results show that low concentrations of nitrate and phosphate in ice are primarily atmospheric in origin, whereas sediments impart a low concentration of silica and modest concentrations of trace metals, especially iron and manganese.

Using idealized sensitivity experiments with a regional atmosphere–ocean–sea ice model, we show that sea ice advance is constrained by initial conditions in March and the retreat season is influenced by the magnitude of several physical processes, in particular by the ice–albedo feedback and ice transport. Atmospheric feedbacks amplify the response of the winter ice extent to perturbations, while some negative feedbacks related to heat conduction fluxes act on the ice volume.

We present radiative forcing (RF) estimates by snow algae in the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) region from multi-year measurements of solar radiation and ground-based hyperspectral characterization of red and green snow algae collected during a brief field expedition in austral summer 2018. Mean daily RF was double for green (~26 W m⁻²) vs. red (~13 W m⁻²) snow algae during the peak growing season, which is on par with midlatitude dust attributions capable of advancing snowmelt.

During 2017 Austral winter, an ice-free area surrounded by the winter sea ice called open ocean polynya appeared in the Lazarev Sea, Antarctica. A layer between 80–180 m depth storage energy from summer months characterizing the vertical structure of the water column. Mixing processes drives the exchange of energy in the water column. This exchange of energy contribute to the open-ocean polynya preconditioning.

Changes in Polar jet circulation bring more dust from Sahara to Greenland. The poleward transport of warm, moist, and dust-laden air masses from the Sahara results in ice melting in Greenland. A meandering polar jet was discovered as responsible for both the emission and the poleward transport of dust. The emission has been linked to an intense Saharan cyclone that formed in April 2011, as a result of the intrusion of an upper-level trough emanating from the polar jet and orographic blocking.