An Investigation of Snow and Ice Phenology in the Arctic from 1997 - 2019

• Main Author: Dauginis, Alicia
• Other Authors: Brown, Laura C, Geography
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Cryosphere; IMS; Lake ice; Sea ice; Snow; 0368; Canada; Scale Lake; arctic cryosphere; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/103723

This study investigates the use of finer-resolution satellite observations for monitoring snow and ice phenology in the Arctic. The primary data used were the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) snow and ice products from 1997 – 2019. Snow and ice phenology were examined by detecting the first and last dates of snow and ice on and off. The largest trends in earlier ice-off dates and later ice-on dates were detected in the Alaska/Russia region, while earlier snow-onset trends were detected across Canada and Eurasia. Sea ice freeze in the Canadian Arctic is shifting earlier, while freeze onset across Eurasia continues to become later, likely due to strong warming across the region. In the Canadian Arctic, significant correlations were identified between snow and ice on/off parameters, and at the pan-Arctic scale, lake ice phenology parameters showed significant correlations to snow and sea ice parameters during the melt season. M.Sc.