RESPONSE OF ICE COVER ON SHALLOW LAKES OF THE NORTH SLOPE OF ALASKA TO CONTEMPORARY CLIMATE CONDITIONS (1950-2011): NUMERICAL MODELING AND RADAR REMOTE SENSING DATA ANALYSIS

摘要

This paper presents results from the analysis of a 20-rnyear time series of ERS-1/2 Synthetic Aperture Radarrn(SAR) data and a numerical lake ice modelingrnexperiment to elucidate the response of ice coverrn(freezing to bed, thickness, and phenology) on shallowrnlakes of the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain (AACP) tornclimate conditions over the last six decades. ERS-1/2rndata was used to map areas of shallow lakes that freezernto bed for the period 1991-2011. Available long-termrnmeteorological data from Barrow, AK was used to runrnthe Canadian Lake Ice Model (CLIMo) for the periodrn1950-2011. Output from CLIMo includes daily icernthickness as well as freeze-up and break-up dates.rnResults from a sub-region of the AACP, near Barrow,rnshow a decline in the fraction of lakes that freeze torntheir bed in winter (5 to 20%), and in maximum icernthickness (10 cm) as determined from the analysis ofrnSAR data and CLIMo, respectively.