Svalbard snow and sea-ice cover: comparing satellite data, on-site measurements, and modelling results (SvalSCESIA) ...

• Main Authors: Killie, Mari Anne, Aaboe, SIgne, Isaksen, Ketil, Van Pelt, Ward, Pedersen, Åshild Ø., Luks, Bartłomiej
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: In-situ; modelling; remote sensing; sea-ice area; snow cover extent; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Svalbard; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4293804; https://zenodo.org/record/4293804

This is chapter 9 of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report 2020 (https://sios-svalbard.org/SESS_Issue3). Fundamental knowledge gaps and scaling issues hamper efforts to determine how changes in snow cover and snow distribution affect ecosystems. The presence of snow cover has huge impact on Arctic ecosystems, human activities, atmospheric processes and Earth’s surface energy balance. Mapping snow cover over large regions is challenging because of its variability over time and space. Also, the small number of weather stations that measure snow cover contributes to a poor observational base. Svalbard is located on the border between the ice-covered Arctic Ocean and the warmer North Atlantic, which means the sea is a controlling factor for Svalbard’s climate. By using remote sensing monitoring it is possible to get a better overview of snow conditions on land. This information can be compared with on-site observations of snow, output from snow models, and evaluated in relation to the ...