The emissions and distribution of wintertime sea salt aerosol (SSA) are poorly constrained in polar regions, despite their potentially significant roles in halogen release, cloud formation and climate. We implement a blowing snow and a frost flower emission scheme in the model, and find that inclusion of blowing snow is necessary to simulate the observed winter and spring SSA levels. We estimate that inclusion of blowing snow increases submicron SSA emissions by factors of 2–3 in polar regions.