Passive Sea Ice Thickening to Rebuild Arctic Sea Ice

In recent decades, the area covered by Arctic sea ice has declined dramatically. Since records began 43 years ago, the loss is equivalent to an area of 1.6 million km2 [1]. In addition to its importance to the overall ecosystem, the loss of sea ice means a significant loss of sunlight reflection, as it reflects up to 80% of incoming light. In contrast, the uncovered ocean water absorbs up to 90% of the incoming light, further increasing global warming [2].

Other approaches to ice thickening have been proven to work by pumping seawater onto the ice to thicken it [3], but further solutions in this area are sparse. In our work, we present a new approach that uses a
passive mechanism and therefore does not require an energy source to pump the seawater. We tested this approach in a simple prototype, to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.

Keywords: arctic sea ice thickening, reverse osmosis, arctic sea ice generation
References:
[1] https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/ and https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ [accessed 30.05.24]
[2] https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/seaice.html [accessed 30.05.24]
[3] https://institutions.newscientist.com/article/2448831-plan-to-refreeze-arctic-sea-ice-shows-promise-in-first-tests/ [accessed 31.10.24]