Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment
The timing of sea ice retreat and advance in Arctic coastal waters varies substantially from year to year. Various activities, ranging from marine transport to the use of sea ice as a platform for industrial activity or winter travel, are affected by variations in the timing of breakup and freeze-up...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0ab397360cd3471ba9ab81ac8ede9f3f 2023-05-15T14:53:01+02:00 Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment J. E. Walsh H. Eicken K. Redilla M. Johnson 2022-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4617-2022 https://doaj.org/article/0ab397360cd3471ba9ab81ac8ede9f3f EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/4617/2022/tc-16-4617-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-16-4617-2022 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/0ab397360cd3471ba9ab81ac8ede9f3f The Cryosphere, Vol 16, Pp 4617-4635 (2022) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4617-2022 2022-12-30T21:42:39Z The timing of sea ice retreat and advance in Arctic coastal waters varies substantially from year to year. Various activities, ranging from marine transport to the use of sea ice as a platform for industrial activity or winter travel, are affected by variations in the timing of breakup and freeze-up, resulting in a need for indicators to document the regional and temporal variations in coastal areas. The primary objective of this study is to use locally based metrics to construct indicators of breakup and freeze-up in the Arctic and subarctic coastal environment. The indicators developed here are based on daily sea ice concentrations derived from satellite passive-microwave measurements. The “day of year” indicators are designed to optimize value for users while building on past studies characterizing breakup and freeze-up dates in the open pack ice. Relative to indicators for broader adjacent seas, the coastal indicators generally show later breakup at sites known to have landfast ice. The coastal indicators also show earlier freeze-up at some sites in comparison with freeze-up for broader offshore regions, likely tied to earlier freezing of shallow-water regions and areas affected by freshwater input from nearby streams and rivers. A factor analysis performed to synthesize the local indicator variations shows that the local breakup and freeze-up indicators have greater spatial variability than corresponding metrics based on regional ice coverage. However, the trends towards earlier breakup and later freeze-up are unmistakable over the post-1979 period in the synthesized metrics of coastal breakup and freeze-up and the corresponding regional ice coverage. The findings imply that locally defined indicators can serve as key links between pan-Arctic or global indicators such as sea ice extent or volume and local uses of sea ice, with the potential to inform community-scale adaptation and response. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Sea ice Subarctic The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic The Cryosphere 16 11 4617 4635 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 J. E. Walsh H. Eicken K. Redilla M. Johnson Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
The timing of sea ice retreat and advance in Arctic coastal waters varies substantially from year to year. Various activities, ranging from marine transport to the use of sea ice as a platform for industrial activity or winter travel, are affected by variations in the timing of breakup and freeze-up, resulting in a need for indicators to document the regional and temporal variations in coastal areas. The primary objective of this study is to use locally based metrics to construct indicators of breakup and freeze-up in the Arctic and subarctic coastal environment. The indicators developed here are based on daily sea ice concentrations derived from satellite passive-microwave measurements. The “day of year” indicators are designed to optimize value for users while building on past studies characterizing breakup and freeze-up dates in the open pack ice. Relative to indicators for broader adjacent seas, the coastal indicators generally show later breakup at sites known to have landfast ice. The coastal indicators also show earlier freeze-up at some sites in comparison with freeze-up for broader offshore regions, likely tied to earlier freezing of shallow-water regions and areas affected by freshwater input from nearby streams and rivers. A factor analysis performed to synthesize the local indicator variations shows that the local breakup and freeze-up indicators have greater spatial variability than corresponding metrics based on regional ice coverage. However, the trends towards earlier breakup and later freeze-up are unmistakable over the post-1979 period in the synthesized metrics of coastal breakup and freeze-up and the corresponding regional ice coverage. The findings imply that locally defined indicators can serve as key links between pan-Arctic or global indicators such as sea ice extent or volume and local uses of sea ice, with the potential to inform community-scale adaptation and response. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
J. E. Walsh H. Eicken K. Redilla M. Johnson |
author_facet |
J. E. Walsh H. Eicken K. Redilla M. Johnson |
author_sort |
J. E. Walsh |
title |
Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment |
title_short |
Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment |
title_full |
Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment |
title_fullStr |
Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the Arctic coastal environment |
title_sort |
sea ice breakup and freeze-up indicators for users of the arctic coastal environment |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4617-2022 https://doaj.org/article/0ab397360cd3471ba9ab81ac8ede9f3f |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice Subarctic The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice Subarctic The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 16, Pp 4617-4635 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/4617/2022/tc-16-4617-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-16-4617-2022 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/0ab397360cd3471ba9ab81ac8ede9f3f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4617-2022 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
4617 |
op_container_end_page |
4635 |
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