Broadening the sea-ice forecaster toolbox with community observations: A case study from the northern Bering Sea

Deemer, Gregory Joseph; Bhatt, Uma S.; Eicken, Hajo; Posey, Pamela G.; Hutchings, Jennifer K.; Nelson, James A.; Heim, Rebecca; Allard, Richard A; Wiggins, H. V.; Creek, Kristina

doi:10.1139/as-2016-0054

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This product is primarily operational; ASIP supports ships working in the region, including shipping and transportation vessels, the fishing fleet, the Coast Guard, tourist vessels, and research vessels. ASIP also supports Alaska native communities and subsistence hunts, the oil and gas industry, Alaska Fish & Wildlife, the Department of Homeland Security, and National Weather Service forecasters (Hufford, 2009;Deemer et al, 2017). ASIP issues a variety of products to stakeholders, including text-based and graphical information.…”

Section: National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program: Gridded ice concentration maps for the Alaskan Arctic

Pacini,

Steele,

Schreck

2024

Preprint

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Abstract. There are many challenges associated with obtaining high-fidelity sea ice concentration (SIC) information, and products that rely solely on passive microwave measurements often struggle to represent conditions at low concentration, especially within the Marginal Ice Zone and during periods of active melt. Here, we present a new SIC product for the Alaskan Arctic generated by the National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program (hereafter referred to as ASIP) that synthesizes a variety of satellite SIC and in-situ observations from 2007–present. These SIC fields have been primarily used for operational purposes and have not yet been gridded or independently validated. In this study, we first grid the ASIP product into 0.05° resolution in both latitude and longitude. We then perform extensive intercomparison with an international database of ship-based in-situ SIC observations, supplemented with observations from Saildrones. Additionally, an intercomparison between three ice products is performed: (i) ASIP, (ii) a high-resolution passive microwave product (AMSR2), and (iii) an operational product available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center that originates at the National Ice Center (MASIE). This intercomparison demonstrates that all products perform similarly when compared to in-situ observations generally, but ASIP outperforms the other products during periods of active melt and in low SIC regions. Furthermore, we show that the similarity in performance among products is due to the in-situ asset distribution, as most in-situ observations are far from the ice edge in locations where all products agree. We find that the ASIP ice edge is generally farther south than both the AMSR2 and MASIE ice edges, by an average of approximately 55 km in the winter and 175 km in summer for ASIP vs. AMSR2, and 60 km in the winter and 130 km in the summer for ASIP vs. MASIE.

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Section: National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program: Gridded ice concentration maps for the Alaskan Arctic

Pacini,

Steele,

Schreck

2024

Preprint

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“…Unlike many other communities, knowledge of floe edge positions is not a priority for Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay residents. Information on floe edges is critical in areas where there is an ice edge that can fracture unexpectedly and drift away (Laidler et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2015;Dammann, 2017;Dammann et al, 2018aDammann et al, , 2019Deemer et al, 2018). There is currently no winter floe edge near Kugluktuk or Cambridge Bay, although a few hunters proposed that floe edges may emerge due to climate change.…”

Section: Comparison To Other Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Best of Both Worlds: Connecting Remote Sensing and Arctic Communities for Safe Sea Ice Travel

Segal¹

2021

ARCTIC

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Northern communities are increasingly interested in technology that provides information about the sea ice environment for travel purposes. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing is widely used to observe sea ice independently of sunlight and cloud cover, however, access to SAR in northern communities has been limited. This study 1) defines the sea ice features that influence travel for two communities in the Western Canadian Arctic, 2) identifies the utility of SAR for enhancing mobility and safety while traversing environments with these features, and 3) describes methods for sharing SAR-based maps. Three field seasons (spring and fall 2017 and spring 2018) were used to engage residents in locally guided research, where applied outputs were evaluated by community members. We found that SAR image data inform and improve sea ice safety, trafficability, and education. Information from technology is desired to complement Inuit knowledge-based understanding of sea ice features, including surface roughness, thin sea ice, early and late season conditions, slush and water on sea ice, sea ice encountered by boats, and ice discontinuities. Floe edge information was not a priority. Sea ice surface roughness was identified as the main condition where benefits to trafficability from SAR-based mapping were regarded as substantial. Classified roughness maps are designed using thresholds representing domains of sea ice surface roughness (smooth ice/maniqtuk hiku, moderately rough ice/maniilrulik hiku, rough ice/maniittuq hiku; dialect is Inuinnaqtun). These maps show excellent agreement with local observations. Overall, SAR-based maps tailored for on-ice use are beneficial for and desired by northern community residents, and we recommend that high-resolution products be routinely made available in communities.

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“…These insights provided a foundation for the development of a framework to quantify the impacts of loss of sea ice on safety of onice travel and operations across a range of difference icescapes and ice uses (Dammann et al 2018), which remain some of the biggest challenges for Alaska Native marine mammal hunters (Huntington et al 2017). Motivated by the need to forecast safe sea-ice conditions at operational timescales (<10 days), insights from CS-IK sea ice partnerships were included in exploring how IK fits into a forecaster toolbox to support useful sea-ice information products (Deemer et al 2018).…”

Section: Sea Ice and Oceanographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine mammal ecology and health: finding common ground between conventional science and indigenous knowledge to track arctic ecosystem variability

Moore

Hauser

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Marine mammals respond to, and thereby reflect, changes in Arctic ecosystems that are important both to practitioners of conventional science (CS) and to holders of indigenous knowledge (IK). Although often seen as contrasting approaches to tracking ecosystem variability, when CS and IK are combined they can provide complementary and synergistic information. Despite exceptions, ecosystem-focused CS is often spatially broad and time shallow (1000 s km, decades) while IK is comparatively narrow spatially and time deep (10 s km, centuries). In addition, differences in how information is gathered, stored, applied and communicated can confound information integration from these two knowledge systems. Over the past four decades, research partnerships between CS practitioners and IK holders have provided novel insights to an Alaskan Arctic marine ecosystem in rapid transition. We identify insights from some of those projects, as they relate to changes in sea ice, oceanography, and more broadly to marine mammal ecology and health. From those insights and the protocols of existing community-based programs, we suggest that the strong seasonal cycle of Arctic environmental events should be leveraged as a shared framework to provide common ground for communication when developing projects related to marine mammal health and ecology. Adopting a shared temporal framework would foster joint CS-IK thinking and support the development of novel and nonlinear approaches to shared questions and concerns regarding marine mammals. The overarching goal is to extend the range and depth of a common understanding of marine mammal health and ecology during a period of rapid ecosystem alteration. The current focus on CS-IK coproduction of knowledge and recent inclusion of marine mammals as essential variables in global ocean observatories makes this an opportune time to find common ground for understanding and adapting to the rapid changes now underway in Arctic marine ecosystems.

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Broadening the sea-ice forecaster toolbox with community observations: A case study from the northern Bering Sea

Cited by 10 publications

References 47 publications

National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program: Gridded ice concentration maps for the Alaskan Arctic

National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program: Gridded ice concentration maps for the Alaskan Arctic

The Best of Both Worlds: Connecting Remote Sensing and Arctic Communities for Safe Sea Ice Travel

Marine mammal ecology and health: finding common ground between conventional science and indigenous knowledge to track arctic ecosystem variability

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