Abstract
An exercise is carried out to analyse the variability in the Arctic snowmelt onset dates (SMOD) using 34 years of passive microwave radiometry data. For this study, the sea ice prevailing regions above 40° N have been clustered into thirteen sectors. Trend analysis of the SMOD shows that 10 sectors have negative trends meaning earlier melt onsets. Negative trends in the East Siberian Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Chukchi Sea, Central Arctic Ocean, Canadian Archipelago, Beaufort Bay and Barents Sea are all statistically significant. Although the Greenland Sea shows a statistically significant positive trend is obtained. Inter-sectorial correlation shows strong positive correlations in many sectors such as between the Canadian Archipelago and the Central Arctic, Chukchi Sea—Central Arctic, East Siberian-Central Arctic. Moreover, correlation with the Arctic Oscillation (January to March average) shows negative correlations with the SMOD.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of Data and Material
Not applicable.
Code Availability
None.
References
Anderson, M., Bliss, A. C., & Drobot, S. (2019). Snow melt onset over Arctic sea ice from SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS brightness temperatures, version 4. Boulder, Colorado USA: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/A9YK15H5EBHK
Anderson, M. (1997). Determination of a melt onset date for Arctic sea ice regions using passive microwave data. Annals of Glaciology, 25, 382–387. https://doi.org/10.3189/s0260305500014324
Bamzai, A. S. (2003). Relationship between snow cover variability and Arctic oscillation index on a hierarchy of time scales. International Journal of Climatology, 23, 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.854
Belchansky, G. I., Douglas, D. C., & Platonov, N. G. (2004). Duration of the Arctic sea ice melt season: Regional and interannual variability 1979–2001. Journal of Climate, 17(1), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017%3C0067:DOTASI%3E2.0.CO;2
Bliss, A. C., & Anderson, M. R. (2014). Snowmelt onset over Arctic sea ice from passive microwave satellite data: 1979–2012. The Cryosphere, 8, 2089–2100. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-2089-2014
Bliss, A., Miller, J., & Meier, W. N. (2017). Comparison of passive microwave-derived early melt onset records on Arctic sea ice. Remote Sensing, 9(3), 199.
Box, G. E. P., & Jenkins, G. M. (1976). Autocorrelation Function and Spectrum of Stationary Processes. In Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control. (pp. 21). San Francisco (Holden-Day Series)
Box, G. E. P., & Pierce, D. A. (1970). Distribution of residual correlations in autoregressive-integrated moving average time series models. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 65(332), 1509–1526.
Curry, J. A., Schramm, J. L., & Ebert, E. E. (1995). Sea ice-albedo climate feedback mechanism. Journal of Climate, 8(2), 240–247. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1995)008%3C0240:SIACFM%3E2.0.CO;2
Drobot, S. D., & Anderson, M. R. (2001). An improved method for determining snowmelt onset dates over Arctic sea ice using scanning multichannel microwave radiometer and special sensor microwave/imager data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106(D20), 24033–24049. https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD000171
Environment and Natural Resources-ENR. (2015). Arctic Oscillation Index. https://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/en/state-environment/21-arctic-oscillation-index. Accessed 12 December 2019.
Gloersen, P., Campbell, W. J., Cavalieri, D. J., Comiso, J. C., Parkinson, C. L., & Zwally, H. J. (1993). Satellite passive microwave observations and analysis of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, 1978–1987. Annals of Glaciology, 17, 149–154.
Hurrell, J. & National Center for Atmospheric Research Staff (Eds.). (2013). The climate data guide: Hurrell North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index (station-based). https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/hurrell-north-atlantic-oscillation-nao-index-station-based. Accessed 12 December 2019.
Markus, T., Stroeve, J. C., & Miller, J. (2009). Recent changes in Arctic sea ice melt onset, freezeup, and melt season length. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans, 114, C12024. https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JC005436
Meier, W. N., & Markus, T. (2015). Remote sensing of sea ice. In M. Tedesco (Ed.), Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere (pp. 248–272). Oxford: Wiley.
National Centers for Environmental Information-NCEI. (2010). Arctic oscillation. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/teleconnections/ao/. Accessed 12 December 2019.
National Institute of Standards and Technology-NIST. (2000). e-Handbook of statistical methods. https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/autocopl.htm. Accessed 12 December 2019
Peng, G., Steele, M., Bliss, A. C., Meier, W. N., & Dickinson, S. (2018). Temporal means and variability of Arctic sea ice melt and freeze season climate indicators using a satellite climate data record. Remote Sensing, 10(9), 1328. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10091328
Perovich, D. K., Nghiem, S. V., Markus, T., & Schweiger, A. (2007). Seasonal evolution and interannual variability of the local solar energy absorbed by the Arctic sea ice–ocean system. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans, 112, C03005.
Smith, G. (2015). Essential statistics, regression, and econometrics (2nd ed., p. 306). Cambridge: Academic Press.
Stroeve, J. C., Markus, T., Meier, W., & Miller, J. (2006). Recent changes in the Arctic melt season. Annals of Glaciology, 44, 367–374. https://doi.org/10.3189/172756406781811583
Stroeve, J. C., Markus, T., Boisvert, L., Miller, J., & Barrett, A. (2014). Changes in Arctic melt season and implications for sea ice loss. Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 1216–1225. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058951
Thompson, D. W., & Wallace, J. M. (1998). The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields. Geophysical Research Letters, 25(9), 1287–1300. https://doi.org/10.1029/98GL00950
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, University of Colorado, Boulder for the passive microwave data and the Climate Prediction Centre, National Centres for Environmental Prediction for the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric oscillations data used in this study. An anonymous reviewer who has helped shape this manuscript to a better revision is also duly acknowledged.
Funding
No funding was received from any agency.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest(s) in the manuscript.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, R.K., Singh, T.V. & Singh, U.S. Long-Term Observation of the Arctic Sea Ice Melt Onset from Microwave Radiometry. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 49, 357–364 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-020-01220-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-020-01220-6