Ice-Sheet Initiation and Climatic Influences of Expanded Snow Cover in Arctic Canada

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Author: Williams, Larry D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1978
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; glacier*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(78)90097-2; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589478900972?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589478900972?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400029628

It has been suggested that the Laurentide Ice Sheet originated with extensive perennial snow cover, and that the snow cover affected climate so as to aid ice-sheet development. In this study, a large increase in extent of October 1st snow cover in the Canadian Arctic from 1967–1970 to 1971–1975 is compared to changes in October means of other climate variables. Over the area of snow-cover expansion, mean surface air temperature decreased by up to 3°C, mean 500-mbar height was lowered by over 60 m, and precipitation was increased by up to a factor of two. These effects, if applied to the entire summer, together with the temperature change computed by Shaw and Donn for a Northern Hemisphere summer insolation minimum (the Milankovich effect), can account for glacierization of the Central Canadian Arctic.