“…These passive sea ice products have been used in numerous studies of Arctic climate and impacts of climate change encompassing: impacts on coastal erosion (Overeem et al, 2011), effects on wildlife such as polar bears (e.g., Stirling and Parkinson, 2006), relationship to greenhouse gas emissions (Johannessen, 2008), possible influences on midlatitude climate (e.g., Overland et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2012;Francis and Vavrus, 2012), model evaluations (e.g., Adams et al, 2011;Jahn et al, 2012), data assimilation (e.g., Lindsay and Zhang, 2006), and assessment of model projections Overland, 2009, 2012). The data have of course also been used to directly analyze time series of Arctic sea ice trends and variability (e.g., Bjørgo et al, 1997;Meier et al, 2007;Comiso and Nishio, 2008;Stroeve et al, 2011;Cavalieri and Parkinson, 2012).…”