Analysis of variations in the ice regime in individual regions of the Sea of Okhotsk during the warming period

Abstract

Research results of interannual variations in iciness anomalies in the Sea of Okhotsk from 1979 to 2015 are presented. This temporal interval is called the warming period, or the warm period in the modern literature. Variations in the ice regime for hierarchical regions of the first level with spatial scales larger than 400 000 km² are analyzed for the first time. A comparative analysis of repeatability of various winter types, as well as periods with positive and negative trends in iciness variations, is made for each ice-covered region chosen and for the entire Sea of Okhotsk. It is shown that ice formation processes and the ice regime in individual regions of the sea have significant differences, which should be considered in developing prognostic models, as well as in field work.