Aerosols in the marine atmospheric environment contribute significantly to the global aerosols as 71% of Earth’s coverage by oceans and their impact on global climate is crucial. Marine atmospheric aerosol from various sources may affect the formation and lifetime of clouds by serving as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei. Here, we present micro-spectroscopic characterization and ice formation potential of particles collected during a northern-southern hemisphere cruise between South Korea to Antarctica. Computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy dispersive X-ray analysis was applied to individual particles to obtain information on elemental composition and mixing state at a statistically significant level. We found that the chemical composition of particles varied with latitude and the mixing state of the particles tends to be externally mixed as the fresh sea salt fraction decreases. Thirty samples are mainly divided into four categories, which are dominated by fresh sea salt, dust, biomass burning, and sulfur-containing particles. We selected representative samples for ice nucleation experiments. The results showed that the dominated types of particles contribute to the ice nucleating particles. Different types of particles showed a variety of ice nucleation abilities. Particles influenced by biomass burning were less efficient, whereas the samples dominated by fresh sea salt with organic coating had the highest efficiency. Finally, we present an ice formation parameterization of marine atmospheric particles for cloud and climate model implementation.