Iceland-Greenland sea ice variability in the framework of the Arctic, North Atlantic and Barents oscillations

Sea ice in Icelandic waters has been observed for centuries and its well-known index is considered representative of the Greenland Sea ice. Previous analyses have attempted to explain interannual and longer-term variability in the Icelandic ice index as arising from temperature regimes and/or atmospheric circulation regimes such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). However there remain many uncertainties and discrepancies, e.g., the predominant time scales of variability in the NAO and Icelandic ice indices are different. Here we examine the linkages between interannual to multi-decadal-scale variability in Iceland-Greenland sea ice conditions and the confluence of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns using a suite of statistical techniques in the time- and frequency domains (e.g., spectral and wavelets analysis), consistently applied to a disparate set of long time series of sea ice, sea-surface temperature, surface air temperature and atmospheric circulation indices from the region. The analysis spans the late-19th century cold period, the early 20th century warming, the mid-20th century cooling and the recent warming and sea-ice reductions that have coincided with unusual modes of the NAO and Arctic Oscillation (AO).