Abstract: Arctic polynyas are significant areas for ocean–atmosphere heat exchange, high winter sea ice production with resulting brine rejection, and play a critical role in local and regional climate variability. In the study, the net water area in Arctic polynyas is obtained through the image-processing technology, and the the net heat flux and the sea ice production in the surface of the net water are also estimated. Their seasonal and interannual variabilities are analyzed. Then, the Arctic is divided into the eight domains. The difference of the variabilities in different domains is studied. The result shows that the total net water area exists two maximums at the beginning and end of freezing time, respectively, and the total ice and salinity production are manily affected by the net heat flux and have a maximum on January. It is found that the times when the net water areas arrive first maximums are related to the times when polynyas starte freezing by analyzing the seasonal variabilities of the net water areas in different polynya domains. In the interannual variability, the net heat flux has a decreading trend and the net water area has a increasing trend, as a whole. The interannual variability of total ice production is very silmilar to that of the total net water area, and has also a increasing trend. At last, the correlation of the interannual variability bewteen sea ice extent and the anuual mean net heat flux in all polynyas is discussed.

Key words: polynyas, net water area, net heat flux, ice production, Arctic