  Sea ice cover in the Arctic and Antarctic is an important indicator of
changes in the climate, with important environmental, economic and security
consequences. The complexity of the spatio-temporal dynamics of sea ice makes
it difficult to assess the temporal nature of the changes - e.g. linear or
exponential - and their precise geographical loci. In this study, Koopman Mode
Decomposition (KMD) was applied to satellite data of sea ice concentration for
the northern and southern hemispheres to gain insight into the temporal and
spatial dynamics of the sea ice behavior and to predict future sea ice
behavior. We discover exponentially decaying spatial modes in both hemispheres
and discuss their precise spatial extent, and also perform precise geographic
predictions of sea ice concentration up to four years in the future. This
data-driven decomposition technique gives insight in spatial and temporal
dynamics not apparent in traditional linear approaches.
