CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Geai, M.L.E.; and Sharp, M.J.
Date : 2011.
Title : MODIS LST as an index of summer melt conditions over Arctic ice caps.
Publication : American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 2011. December 5-9, 2011. San Francisco, California. USA.
Issue : C21C-07.
Page(s) :
Abstract
Despite the large area of glacier ice in the Arctic, very few in situ mass balance and air temperature measurements exist over Arctic ice caps. There is therefore a need to develop proxy records of summer melt conditions on these ice caps in order to identify spatial patterns and temporal trends in surface mass balance across the region. Analysis of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived land surface temperatures (LST) may provide a method to evaluate melt and climate trends over Arctic ice caps for the last decade. MODIS LST data were used to derive the seasonal mean of 8-day average values of daytime clear-sky surface temperature over 30 Arctic ice caps for each melt season from 2000 to 2010. LST was retrieved for a specified area within each individual ice cap, defined as the largest contiguous area of ice and snow within that ice cap. The melt season was defined as the period between the 10-year mean of melt onset and freeze-up dates derived from QuikScat. Given the potential biases introduced by the facts that a) LST data are available only for clear sky days and b) cloudiness likely varies substantially across the Arctic glaciated regions, there is a need to verify LST measurements against known changes in air temperature across all these regions. NCEP/NCAR R1 Reanalysis temperatures provide a single consistent dataset with which to evaluate air temperature trends. Ice caps in Alaska, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) and Greenland display a common shift toward strong positive anomalies in the 2000’s (0.45 to 1.2°C). The Iceland and Svalbard ice caps show weaker positive air temperature anomalies in the same period (0.38 to 0.4°C), while the Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land ice caps (Russia) display negative anomalies (-0.10 to -0.25°C). LST track the NCEP air temperature records at 700 hPa in the CAA (r2 0.6 to 0.96) and northern Svalbard (r2 0.6 to 0.76) only. This talk will explore whether the observed differences in degree of correlation between the LST and air temperature records is directly related to regional variations in the number of individual LST measurements contributing to the 8-day LST product and, if so, whether these variations are due primarily to differences in the incidence of cloud cover.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology