Abstract: The Arctic underwater acoustic channel has its particularity due to sea ice cover and the distinctive sound velocity profile of sea water, so it is needed to research the Arctic underwater acoustic communication for the Arctic development and utilization. In the summer of 2017, an underwater acoustic communication experiment under ice was carried out in the central region of the Arctic Ocean, the communication distance is 1.26 km and the communication rate is 1.2 kbps. The experiment shows that for the communication system with a higher carrier frequency, the background noise level at the receiving terminal is high, and the complex ice distribution on the surface of underwater acoustic channel is the main cause for the high bit error rate of the experimental results. The corresponding improvement measures and suggestions are put forward. The underwater acoustic communication equipment works well and has no fault in the experiment. This experiment accumulates valuable experience for the development of polar underwater acoustic communication equipment and for the research and application of polar underwater acoustic communication.