Interdecadal changes in snow depth on Arctic sea ice

Webster, Melinda; Rigor, Ignatius; Nghiem, S. V.; Kurtz, N. T.; Farrell, S. L.; Perovich, Donald K.; Sturm, Matthew

doi:10.1002/2014jc009985

Cited by 224 publications

(263 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

249

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Snow data from the IMB buoy at the 2011 site indicate that snow depths did not increase significantly after the March measurements were taken, showing <5 cm accumulation for April and May combined ( Figure 5). The lack of snow accumulation is consistent with the results of Webster et al [2014], which show low April and May snow accumulation rates in this region from more recent years.…”

Section: Influence Of Snow Distribution On Melt Pond Formationsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Especially evident on undeformed first-year ice, the lateral spread of meltwater can cause maximum pond fractions as high as 70% due to the low surface topography of snow drift bed forms [Scharien and Yackel, 2005;Petrich et al, 2012a;Polashenski et al, 2012]. On a broader scale, Webster et al [2014] have shown that snow depth distributions on both ice types in the western Arctic have decreased, and may have two effects on melt pond formation (1) more thinly snow-covered ice and bare ice may expose the ice surface to solar radiation earlier in the season and hasten melt, and (2) less freshwater may be available during early pond formation to form low-salinity ice surface layers [Eicken et al, 2002], which further motivates an analysis of seasonal melt pond evolution on drifting sea ice in more recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The seasonal evolution of melt ponds has been well documented on multiyear and landfast first‐year sea ice, but is critically lacking on drifting, first‐year sea ice, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Arctic. Using 1 m resolution panchromatic satellite imagery paired with airborne and in situ data, we evaluated melt pond evolution for an entire melt season on drifting first‐year and multiyear sea ice near the 2011 Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station (APLIS) site in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. A new algorithm was developed to classify the imagery into sea ice, thin ice, melt pond, and open water classes on two contrasting ice types: first‐year and multiyear sea ice. Surprisingly, melt ponds formed ∼3 weeks earlier on multiyear ice. Both ice types had comparable mean snow depths, but multiyear ice had 0–5 cm deep snow covering ∼37% of its surveyed area, which may have facilitated earlier melt due to its low surface albedo compared to thicker snow. Maximum pond fractions were 53 ± 3% and 38 ± 3% on first‐year and multiyear ice, respectively. APLIS pond fractions were compared with those from the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) field campaign. APLIS exhibited earlier melt and double the maximum pond fraction, which was in part due to the greater presence of thin snow and first‐year ice at APLIS. These results reveal considerable differences in pond formation between ice types, and underscore the importance of snow depth distributions in the timing and progression of melt pond formation.

show abstract

Section: Influence Of Snow Distribution On Melt Pond Formationsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Arctic sea-ice cover is declining rapidly, with reductions in the summer minimum extent by more than 50%, a decline in mean thickness by over 60%, and a 30-60% decrease in snow on ice thickness since the 1970s (Stroeve et al 2012;Webster et al 2014;Lindsay and Schweiger 2015). These changes in sea-ice allow for more light penetration and longer growing seasons (Wassmann and Reigstad 2011;Nicolaus et al 2012), potentially increasing Arctic Ocean primary production (Arrigo et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistance of Arctic phytoplankton to ocean acidification and enhanced irradiance

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Arctic Ocean is a region particularly prone to ongoing ocean acidification (OA) and climate-driven changes. The influence of these changes on Arctic phytoplankton assemblages, however, remains poorly understood. In order to understand how OA and enhanced irradiances (e.g., resulting from sea-ice retreat) will alter the species composition, primary production, and ecophysiology of Arctic phytoplankton, we conducted an incubation experiment with an assemblage from Baffin Bay (71°N, 68°W) under different carbonate chemistry and irradiance regimes. Seawater was collected from just below the deep Chl a maximum, and the resident phytoplankton were exposed to 380 and 1000 latm pCO 2 at both 15 and 35% incident irradiance. On-deck incubations, in which temperatures were 6°C above in situ conditions, were monitored for phytoplankton growth, biomass stoichiometry, net primary production, photo-physiology, and taxonomic composition. During the 8-day experiment, taxonomic diversity decreased and the diatom Chaetoceros socialis became increasingly dominant irrespective of light or CO 2 levels. We found no statistically significant effects from either higher CO 2 or light on physiological properties of phytoplankton during the experiment. We did, however, observe an initial 2-day stress response in all treatments, and slight photo-physiological responses to higher CO 2 and light during the first five days of the incubation. Our results thus indicate high resistance of Arctic phytoplankton to OA and enhanced irradiance levels, challenging the commonly predicted stimulatory effects of enhanced CO 2 and light availability for primary production.

show abstract

“…This is closely connected with the thinning of the sea ice (Kwok and Rothrock, 2009;Kwok and Cunningham, 2015;Wadhams, 2012) and the change in the ice age distribution with less MY ice and more FY ice (Tschudi et al, 2016). Later onset of freeze (Stroeve et al, 2014) and correspondingly later start of snow accumulation is the last but 15 not the least factor that determine snow depth distribution in present time (Wang et al, 2013;Webster et al, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In the case of FY ice, snow accumulation can only start after the sea ice freezing is stable. A delayed sea ice freeze-up will lead to a delayed start of snow accumulation and thereby have 5 impact on the snow depth evolution during the winter (Webster et al, 2014). From the Sever data an empirical relation between ice thickness and snow depth can be derived for FY ice, using least square regression, resulting in the equation: = 0.069 * ℎ + 2.0 where SD is snow depth of the undisturbed snow on the undeformed ice and Ice_th is ice thickness of the FY ice (in cm), using a threshold of 200 cm, as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Depth Of Undisturbed Snow Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow depth on Arctic sea ice from historical in situ data

Shalina¹,

Sandven²

2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.In this paper we analyze snow data from Soviet airborne expeditions Sever that was collected in the Arctic around places of landings in March, April and May and cover much wider area than the region of observations of Soviet North Pole drifting stations. Particularly, there were a lot of Sever observations in the Eurasian seas. We investigate the following snow parameters: average snow depth on the level ice, height and area of sastrugi, depth of snow dunes attached to ice ridges and 10 depth of snow on hummocks. We have built new snow depth climatology for the late winter that was calculated using both Sever expedition and North Pole drifting station observations. Our result refines the description of snow depth in the central Arctic and provides detailed information on snow depth in the marginal seas. In the 1970s-80s the snow cover in the central Arctic had the following characteristics: the snow depth of the undisturbed snow was 21.2 cm, the depth of sastrugi (that occupied about 36% of the ice surface) was 36.2 cm and the depth of snow assembled near the hummocks and ridges was 15 about 65 cm. For the marginal seas Sever observations revealed that the average depth of undisturbed snow on the level ice changed from 9.8 cm in the Laptev Sea to 15.3 cm in the East Siberian Sea, the topmost value in the East Siberian Sea is explained by the highest proportion of multiyear ice there. Observations demonstrated a very high spatial variability of snow depth in the marginal seas characterized by standard deviation changing from 66 to 100%. Average height of sastrugi in the Eurasian seas varied from 23 cm to about 32 cm with standard deviation from 50 to 56%. Average area covered by sastrugi 20 in the marginal seas was estimated as 36.5% of the area of the ice floe where those features have been observed. The snow map introduced here as a new climatology is built from Sever and North Pole data, with the latter amounted to 6.1% of the whole data set. On the whole, our snow depth map reveals lower values comparing to Warren climatology in the central Arctic and shows refined information for the Eurasian seas.

show abstract

Interdecadal changes in snow depth on Arctic sea ice

Cited by 224 publications

References 43 publications

Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Resistance of Arctic phytoplankton to ocean acidification and enhanced irradiance

Snow depth on Arctic sea ice from historical in situ data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About