Relatively modest changes in winter sea ice concentration can impact hemispheric circulation patterns including the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Changes in circulation patterns such as the NAO can in turn markedly impact Arctic sea ice, completing a feedback loop with important implications for the temporal evolution of the atmosphere-sea ice system. Here, we use observational analyses and output from a hierarchy of modeling frameworks to present important and, in some cases, unexpected aspects of Arctic atmosphere-sea ice interaction.