Abstract Arctic sea ice has experienced rapid decrease in recent decades. The sea ice property changes have altered its thermodynamic processes, enhancing the heat exchange among atmosphere‐ocean‐ice surface. However, heat exchange associated with sea ice phase‐change process, which is defined as sea ice latent heat, have received relatively little attention. Results show that melt‐season sea ice latent heat absorption has intensified and reveal an opposing anomaly pattern spatial pattern between center and marginal ice regions. In the central Arctic, sea ice thinning enhances the increase of melt‐season sea ice latent heat, whereas in the marginal ice zone, reduced sea ice volume limits the enhancement. Meanwhile, the active sea ice melt season has expanded and shifted earlier, accompanied by more sea ice latent heat absorption from the late melt season toward the early melt season, suggesting that the sea ice latent heat has become increasingly active in the Arctic sea ice energy budget.