Reflection and transmission of irradiance by snow and sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean in summer 2010

Reflection and transmission of irradiance by the combined snow and sea ice layer were measured at an ice camp (ca. 10 days) and several short-term stations (ca. 2 h) established in the western sector of the Arctic Ocean above 80°N during the 2010 summer. These measurements were made with an intention to quantify the apparent optical properties of snow and sea ice, and to evaluate their roles in the mass balance of snow-covered sea ice in the High Arctic. The integrated 350–920 nm albedo ranged from 0.54 to 0.88, and was primarily dependent on the geophysical properties of snow, but not those of sea ice. This implies that all snow cover was still optically thick, even though snow melting had commenced at all measurement sites. For sea ice about 1.66 m thick and covered by 2.5–8.5 cm of snow at the ice camp, the integrated 350–920 nm transmittance ranged from 0.017 to 0.065. Rapid snow melting resulting from an event of slight drizzle doubled the available solar irradiance under the ice (from ca. 3.6 to 7.2 W·m−2), which further accelerated ice-bottom decay. During the measurement at the camp, the temporally averaged incident solar irradiance at 320–950 nm was 110.6±33.6 W·m−2, 29.2±2.9% of which was absorbed by snow and sea ice and utilized to melt snow and sea ice. The melting of snow and sea ice had a distinctly greater effect on the spectral reflection and transmission for the near-infrared spectrum than for the ultraviolet and visible spectra

Assessing trend and variation of Arctic sea-ice extent during 1979–2012 from a latitude perspective of ice edge

Arctic sea-ice extent (in summer) has been shrinking since the 1970s. However, we have little knowledge of the detailed spatial variability of this shrinking. In this study, we examine the (latitudinal) ice extent along each degree of longitude, using the monthly Arctic ice index data sets (1979–2012) from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Statistical analysis suggests that: (1) for summer months (July–October), there was a 34-year declining trend in sea-ice extent at most regions, except for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Greenland and Svalbard, with retreat rates of 0.0562–0.0898 latitude degree/year (or 6.26–10.00 km/year, at a significance level of 0.05); (2) for sea ice not geographically muted by the continental coastline in winter months (January–April), there was a declining trend of 0.0216–0.0559 latitude degree/year (2.40–6.22 km/year, at a significance level of 0.05). Regionally, the most evident sea-ice decline occurred in the Chukchi Sea from August to October, Baffin Bay and Greenland Sea from January to May, Barents Sea in most months, Kara Sea from July to August and Laptev Sea and eastern Siberian Sea in August and September. Trend analysis also indicates that: (1) the decline in summer ice extent became significant (at a 0.05 significance level) since 1999 and (2) winter ice extent showed a clear changing point (decline) around 2000, becoming statistically significant around 2005. The Pacific–Siberian sector of the Arctic accounted for most of the summer sea-ice decline, while the winter recovery of sea ice in the Atlantic sector tended to decrease