A model that simulates magnets can also reproduce pools of water on Arctic sea ice from just one real-world measurement. Researchers in the US and UK adapted the Ising statistical model of phase transitions in ferromagnets to recreate melt-pond patterns. Characterizing the distribution of meltwater at small scales could improve climate models and predict ice loss better.

As climate changes, warming is expected to be especially rapid at high latitudes. In the Arctic, a lengthening melt season over the last few decades has already reduced the volume and extent of sea ice, with year-on-year ice-loss rates generally exceeding predictions.

One reason for the failure of models to predict this loss accurately might lie in how they account for melt ponds. The formation and growth of these ponds, which occurs at the transition between sea ice and open ocean, includes a…