Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
Long-Term Changes in Landfast Ice and Its Contribution to Shelf Freshwater
Yanling Yu1, Harry L. Stern2, Mark Ortmeyer3
1Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th Street, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA, Phone (206) 543-1254, Fax (206) 616-3142, yanling@apl.washington.edu
2Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th Street, Seattle, WA, 98105-6698, USA, Phone 206/543-7253, Fax 206/616-3142, harry@apl.washington.edu
3Polar Science Center - Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40th Street, Seattle, WA, 98105-6698, USA, Phone (206) 543-1349, Fax (206) 616-3142, morto@apl.washington.edu
Landfast ice plays a unique role in the land-upper ocean freshwater cycle. Formed in the shallow water along the Arctic coasts, landfast ice can lock up a significant amount of freshwater from river discharge and ice melt, but most of this freshwater will be returned back to the shelves during summer melting. The freshwater stored in landfast ice is comparable to the total annual runoff of the four largest Arctic rivers.
The growth and melt of fast ice displays a large interannual variability. Of climatic significance are the year-to-year changes in the storage and the timing of the released fresh water. Recent observations indicate some substantial changes in the Arctic climate. These changes may affect the freshwater exchange between the land and the upper ocean, partly through altering the growth and melting patterns of landfast ice.
Under the Arctic Freshwater Initiative funded by NSF, this research examines the long-term changes in landfast ice and its contribution to the arctic freshwater budget. By modeling fast ice thickness and integrating these results with a 26-year record of landfast ice extent observation, this study analyzes the basin-wide changes in landfast ice cover, including ice extent, growth/melt, and freshwater storage. To relate the results to the Arctic climate variability, the changes in fast ice will be compared with different Arctic climate variables.
Abstract Categories: Coastal Processes
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