Onset of south summer snowmelt on Antarctic sea ice between 1988 and 2007 ...

• Main Authors: Willmes, Sascha, Haas, Christian, Nicolaus, Marcel, Bareiss, Jörg
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2009
• Subjects: Priority Programme 1158 Antarctic Research with Comparable Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas SPP1158; Sea Ice Physics @ AWI AWI_SeaIce; Arctic; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; albedo; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.701389; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.701389

The annual onset of snowmelt on sea ice is essential for climate monitoring since it triggers a decrease in surface albedo that feeds back into a stronger absorption of shortwave radiation - a process known as the snowmelt-albedo feedback - and thus strongly modifies the surface energy balance during summer. Algorithms designed for the detection of snowmelt on Arctic sea ice and based on longterm passive-microwave data revealed the melt season in the Arctic from 1979 to 1998 to be significantly elongated and the onset of melt to be shifted toward earlier dates. ... : Supplement to: Willmes, Sascha; Haas, Christian; Nicolaus, Marcel; Bareiss, Jörg (2009): Satellite microwave observations of the interannual variability of snowmelt on sea ice in the Southern Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 114, C03006 ...