Recent mechanical weakening of the Arctic sea ice cover as revealed from larger inertial oscillations

International audienceWe present a simple and analytical ocean boundary layer-sea ice coupled dynamical model that we apply to the modeling of Arctic sea ice motion in the frequency domain, and particularly in the inertial range. This study further complements our related work in an unpublished paper where the sea ice cover response to the Coriolis forcing has been studied. This analytical model allows interpretation of the spatial, seasonal and pluriannual dependence of the magnitude of the inertial oscillations detailed in terms of mechanical behavior of the ice cover. In this model, the sea ice mechanical response is simplified through the introduction of a linear internal friction term K. A dependence of K allows us to explain the associated dependence of the seasonal and regional Arctic sea ice inertial motion. In addition, a significant decrease of K, i.e., a mechanical weakening of the sea ice cover, is observed for the period 2002-2008 compared to 1979-2001, for the entire Arctic in both seasons. These results show that the regional, seasonal and pluriannual variations of sea ice inertial motion are not only the trivial consequence of simultaneous variations of thickness and concentration (and so of ice mass per unit area). Instead, the shrinking and thinning of the Arctic sea ice cover over the last few decades has induced a mechanical weakening, which in turns has favored sea ice fracturing and deformation