The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, and its summer sea ice has shrunk by roughly 13 percent per decade since satellite records began. As the white reflective ice gives way to dark open water, the region absorbs more heat in a self-reinforcing cycle. But a team of researchers and engineers has now demonstrated a surprisingly low-tech intervention that may help slow this decline: pumping seawater directly onto the surface of existing ice to make it thicker and more resilient.
In the winter of 2026, researchers from UK-based startup Real Ice conducted a large-scale field trial on the Arctic sea ice north of Canada. Using portable pumps and hoses, they drilled through the existing ice and brought up seawater from below, spraying it across the snow-covered surface. The water quickly froze in the extreme cold, adding a new layer of ice on top of the existing sheet. Over the course of the trial, the team pumped approximately 50,000 tonnes of seawater across a 450-meter-wide area, increasing the total ice thickness by about 50 centimeters beyond natural growth.
The technique, known as sea-ice thickening or "ice farming," exploits a simple physical principle. In winter, the air temperature above Arctic sea ice routinely falls below minus 30 degrees Celsius. When seawater is released onto the surface, it freezes rapidly, adding mass to the ice sheet. The thicker the ice becomes, the more likely it is to survive the summer melt season. For the trial, the researchers deliberately chose a flat, stable area of first-year ice to test the method under controlled conditions. The results matched their computer models closely, confirming that the approach is physically sound and operationally feasible at a meaningful scale.
The scale was unprecedented. While the concept of spraying seawater onto ice has been discussed for years, the 2026 trial was the first scientific field test at this scale. Previous experiments were small-scale proof-of-concept efforts. The Real Ice team deployed specialized equipment designed for extreme polar conditions, including insulated pumps and heated hoses that could operate reliably at temperatures below minus 40 degrees Celsius.
The ice gain is significant but localized. Adding 50 centimeters of thickness across a 450-meter area is a meaningful achievement for a first trial, but it represents a tiny fraction of the Arctic Ocean's total ice cover, which spans millions of square kilometers. Scaling the method to a regional or basin-wide level would require enormous energy, infrastructure, and logistical resources. The researchers estimate that covering a meaningful portion of the Arctic would require thousands of pumping stations operating autonomously throughout the winter.
Environmental side effects need study. Adding seawater to the surface changes the salinity and structure of the ice, which could affect algae growth, nutrient cycles, and the behavior of ice-dependent species such as seals and polar bears. The Real Ice team has committed to a multi-year environmental impact assessment before any larger deployment. Early results suggest that the thicker ice actually provides better habitat for some ice algae, but the full ecosystem picture is still emerging.
The successful trial represents a rare piece of good news in the otherwise grim landscape of climate science. While sea-ice thickening is not a substitute for reducing greenhouse gas emissions — the root cause of Arctic warming — it could serve as a temporary "bandage" to preserve ice cover during the critical decades of the energy transition. If scaled effectively, the method could help maintain the Arctic's reflective albedo effect, potentially slowing regional warming by several tenths of a degree. Several governments and climate foundations have already expressed interest in funding a larger pilot program. For now, the Real Ice results provide the first real-world evidence that humans may be able to actively protect — not just passively mourn — the planet's frozen regions.