Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) is a region of extensive interactions between the polar atmosphere, ocean, and sea ice. Waves and swells develop over the open ocean and propagate into the ice edge, breaking the ice into smaller floes and modifying the bottom of the atmosphere and the surface ocean. Given the ongoing climate change in polar regions, wave-affected MIZ is of particular importance, which is also a focus of the ongoing effort of the community for better defining and observing MIZs. We introduce a new climate record for wintertime wave-affected MIZ based on CryoSat-2, covering the Atlantic Arctic during the winter months since 2010. The retrieval method is based on the delay-Doppler radar altimetry over sea ice, and in particular, the waveform stack parameters of CryoSat-2. Large MIZs can reach over 300km into the ice pack, as observed by CS2. No statistically significant change of the wave-affected MIZ is found since 2010, however, large inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability is present. We relate the wave-affected MIZ to both wave/swell conditions and sea ice parameters. Especially, the new dataset sheds light on the swell attenuation in the MIZ, which: (1) contains systematic coverage of the various sea ice conditions, and (2) is consistent with various Arctic and Antarctic in-situ measurements. Related issues, including altimetric representation for MIZ, as well as extensions to the dataset are also discussed.

sea ice,altimetry,marginal ice zone,wave-ice interaction