The short term interaction between atmosphere ice and ocean is confined in the atmosphere to a relatively thin layer of 50-1000 m thickness which is called the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). It is often characterized by a slight decrease of temperature from the surface to its upper boundary, where temperature starts to increase with height  (capping inversion). This temperature structure is  mainly a result of low-level radiative cooling and turbulent mixing caused by surface friction and nonhomogeneous  surface heating. The ABL vertical extent depends on the strength of the turbulent eddies which is influenced by many  parameters, but  most of all by the surface characteristics. In polar regions these are the sea ice roughness (ridges) and the sea ice concentration having a large influence on the surface  temperature distribution, especially during winter. Also wind speed and  direction, the temperatures of advected air masses relative to the surface temperature, and the location relative to the edge of pack ice are important for the turbulence intensity and structure of the ABL. Both have a large impact on the exchange processes between atmosphere, sea ice and ocean.

Large horizontal gradients of the surface temperatures as in the marginal sea ice zones during winterly cold-air outbreaks or over regions with leads cause  the formation of strong convective flow regimes with large transports of energy and with a strong interaction of the atmosphere and ocean/sea ice. Large parts of the inner Arctic are characterized, however, by weaker turbulence, generated mechanically by sea ice ridges or by the edges of floes and melt ponds.