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Off northeast Greenland, the Northeast Water Polynya is organized by the interaction of local currents and winds with coastal geometry and relatively fixed ice barriers. A regional northward coastal current encounters the Norske Øer shelf-ice barrier; divergence and shelter on its lee side help create the southern opening. This local northward current should not be replaced in the explanation by assuming uniform southward flow along the entire Greenland coast. In summer, weak winds, the current and the barrier can maintain the opening, while solar heating and the seasonal heat budget allow it to expand northward without continuous new-ice formation.

Winter conditions differ. Strong northerly winds can remove newly formed sea ice from the northern region around Ob Bank, with the Ob Bank ice barrier and Kronprins Christian Land controlling shelter and divergence. Large air–sea temperature differences then sustain rapid freezing and export. Thus the recurring geographical opening has a changing balance of dynamical export and seasonal thermodynamics; long-lived does not mean identical formation conditions throughout the year. Ice barriers themselves can also change between years.

The North Water Polynya, or Pikialasorsuaq, occupies the Smith Sound and northern Baffin Bay region between Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. An ice arch across the narrow upstream channel restricts the arrival of thick drifting Arctic ice. Northerly winds and predominantly southward transport through the channel remove newly formed ice into Baffin Bay. The combination of blocked upstream ice supply and continuing downstream export maintains low ice concentration despite strong winter cooling. The location and stability of the arch therefore matter as well as the local wind. Warm Atlantic-origin water carried along the Greenland side can provide a sensible-heat contribution, with tidal and other mixing helping deliver heat upward; the entire opening should not be attributed either exclusively to warm-water convection or exclusively to wind.

Both regions permit much greater winter ocean-to-atmosphere heat transfer than nearby thick ice, and both can concentrate ice formation and brine rejection. The production of saline shelf water affects local density stratification and exchanges with surrounding waters; it is not automatically equivalent to deep or abyssal water formation. In spring and summer the early availability of light and open water promotes biological production and supports rich marine food webs. These persistent or recurrent openings also provide habitat and access of particular importance to Arctic animals and coastal communities. The key Arctic mechanisms are ice-barrier control of supply, current- and wind-driven divergence, and a seasonally varying contribution from ocean heat.