On the use of spaceborne ku-band scatterometer measurements for assessing sea ice melt dynamics in the Canadian arctic archipelago

• Main Author: Howell, Stephen E. L.
• Other Authors: Yackel, John
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Calgary 2007
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Arctic Archipelago; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/102330; https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/1329

Bibliography: p. 185-202 Some pages are in colour. The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is an intricate series of islands located on the North American continental shelf. While most Global Climate Models (GCM) simulations predict an ice-free Arctic Ocean as early as 2040 their coarse spatial resolution cannot resolve sea ice variability with the narrow channels of the CAA. This thesis evaluates the seasonal linkages between sea ice thermodynamics and dynamics and surface energy balance parameters in order to provide new spatiotemporal sea ice melt information within the CAA. This is accomplished primarily by developing and applying a sea ice melt algorithm from Sea Winds/QuikSCAT (QuikSCAT) Ku-band scatterometer data. Record low multi-year sea ice (MYI) concentrations were reported in the Northern Hemisphere from 2002-2005 but results of this thesis show contrasting increases in the CAA. This thesis demonstrates that QuikSCA T detected early melt transitions within the CAA make certain regions subject to an increased flux of MYI. Furthermore, over the QuikSCA T detected melt season, thermodynamic factors are insufficient to completely melt out MYI found in the southerly latitude regions of the CAA even after several successive years of ablation. Results also illustrate that melt processes in CAA function as such that when MYI is removed it gradually recovers because the southerly regions of the CAA act as a MYI drain-trap. This thesis finds that the melt processes operating in the CAA, may result in the CAA being one of the last sea ice regions in the Northern Hemisphere to experience changes significant enough to facilitate summertime sea ice-free conditions under a warmer Earth scenario.