Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island
Fugitive dust arising from mining operations in the Arctic can be a concern to surrounding communities. The Mary River Mine operation on northwest Baffin Island in the Qikiqtani region, Nunavut, is one example. Yet, the short and long-term impacts of fugitive dust remain poorly understood. Dust lowe...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/15/2/313/ 2023-08-20T03:59:19+02:00 Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island Liming He H. Peter White Wenjun Chen agris 2023-01-05 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020313 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs15020313 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 15; Issue 2; Pages: 313 mine dust snow snowmelt satellite discolouration disturbance Text 2023 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020313 2023-08-01T08:08:19Z Fugitive dust arising from mining operations in the Arctic can be a concern to surrounding communities. The Mary River Mine operation on northwest Baffin Island in the Qikiqtani region, Nunavut, is one example. Yet, the short and long-term impacts of fugitive dust remain poorly understood. Dust lowers snow albedo which can contribute to early snowmelt. This influences the spring snowmelt freshet period, significant to the land-atmosphere interactions, hydrology, ecology, and socioeconomic activities in the Arctic. Here, we map dust extents indicated by snow discoloration and examine for areas of early snowmelt using a 21-year MODIS time series snow cover product in 2000–2020. We found an episode of dust plume extended far beyond the reference dust sampler sites from where Nil dustfall is detected. A snow albedo decrease of 0.014 was seen more than 60 km away from the mine site. Incidents of early snowmelt existed extensively and progressively prior to the Mary River Mine operations; however, localized and even earlier snowmelt also appear around Mine’s operations; we estimated that the snow-off date was advanced by one week and three weeks for the background, and areas around the Mine facilities, respectively, during the 21-year period. Furthermore, the area increase in early snowmelt around the Mine facilities correlates to ore production growth. This study demonstrates rapid changes in early snowmelt beyond observed regional trends when additional drivers are introduced. Text albedo Arctic Baffin Island Baffin Global warming Nunavut MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Nunavut Baffin Island Remote Sensing 15 2 313 |
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MDPI Open Access Publishing |
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language |
English |
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mine dust snow snowmelt satellite discolouration disturbance |
spellingShingle |
mine dust snow snowmelt satellite discolouration disturbance Liming He H. Peter White Wenjun Chen Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island |
topic_facet |
mine dust snow snowmelt satellite discolouration disturbance |
description |
Fugitive dust arising from mining operations in the Arctic can be a concern to surrounding communities. The Mary River Mine operation on northwest Baffin Island in the Qikiqtani region, Nunavut, is one example. Yet, the short and long-term impacts of fugitive dust remain poorly understood. Dust lowers snow albedo which can contribute to early snowmelt. This influences the spring snowmelt freshet period, significant to the land-atmosphere interactions, hydrology, ecology, and socioeconomic activities in the Arctic. Here, we map dust extents indicated by snow discoloration and examine for areas of early snowmelt using a 21-year MODIS time series snow cover product in 2000–2020. We found an episode of dust plume extended far beyond the reference dust sampler sites from where Nil dustfall is detected. A snow albedo decrease of 0.014 was seen more than 60 km away from the mine site. Incidents of early snowmelt existed extensively and progressively prior to the Mary River Mine operations; however, localized and even earlier snowmelt also appear around Mine’s operations; we estimated that the snow-off date was advanced by one week and three weeks for the background, and areas around the Mine facilities, respectively, during the 21-year period. Furthermore, the area increase in early snowmelt around the Mine facilities correlates to ore production growth. This study demonstrates rapid changes in early snowmelt beyond observed regional trends when additional drivers are introduced. |
format |
Text |
author |
Liming He H. Peter White Wenjun Chen |
author_facet |
Liming He H. Peter White Wenjun Chen |
author_sort |
Liming He |
title |
Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island |
title_short |
Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island |
title_full |
Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island |
title_fullStr |
Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island |
title_full_unstemmed |
Compounded Impacts of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Snowmelt in Northern Baffin Island |
title_sort |
compounded impacts of global warming and anthropogenic disturbances on snowmelt in northern baffin island |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020313 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Arctic Nunavut Baffin Island |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Nunavut Baffin Island |
genre |
albedo Arctic Baffin Island Baffin Global warming Nunavut |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Baffin Island Baffin Global warming Nunavut |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 15; Issue 2; Pages: 313 |
op_relation |
Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs15020313 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020313 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
313 |
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1774725042777620480 |