The reduction of the arctic ice cap in summer changes the length of a day! The a

Question

The reduction of the arctic ice cap in summer changes the length of a day! The average maximum ice volume in winter over the last 27 years is 28000 km3 , and in summer the minimum volume over the same time frame is 12000 km3 . The thickness of the ice is, on average, 1.5 m in winter, 2.5 m in summer. Modeling the ice as a disk/cylinder in both winter and summer, use this information to estimate the change in the length of the day between winter and summer due to arctic sea ice melting, and indicate which you expect to have a longer day (winter or summer).

Explanation / Answer

I din not find any formula to link the ice volume with the length of the day in winter/summer (and I have no idea if this exists). What I can say is that the length of the melt season (summer) for Arctic sea ice is growing by several days each decade.

A study published on March 2014 says that an earlier start to the melt season is allowing the Arctic Ocean to absorb enough additional solar radiation in some places to melt as much as 4 ft (1.2192 m) of the Arctic ice cap’s thickness.

Thus, the Arctic warming causes an earlier melt onset in the spring and a later freeze-up in the fall (the predominant phenomenon extending the melting is the later start of the freeze season). Some areas are freezing up between six and 11 days later per decade.

According to NASA sources, the Arctic melt season has lengthened on average by 5 days/decade from 1979 to 2013.

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