Author(s): Ruibo Lei; Jia Wang; Xiangshan Tian-Kunze; Matti Lepparanta; Qun Li
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: SSM/I sea ice concentration and CLARA black-sky composite albedo were used to estimate sea ice albedo in Pacific section of the Arctic Ocean in 2000-2009. The seasonal evolutions of sea ice coverage and albedo were then obtained. In general, the seasonal evolution of sea ice albedo was controlled by the surface ponding and melting. The estimated sea ice albedo in In 80°–85°N was very close to the SHEBA measurements until mid-August. From then onwards, the albedo in2000-2009 was smaller than that of SHEBA in 1998, because the ice surface freezing wasdelayed. The ice albedo showed a large difference between multiyear ice and first-year ice because the latter would melt completely by the end of a melt season. In 2000-2009, summer (May-August) sea ice concentration, regional composite albedo and sea ice albedo decreased by about 12%, 0.1 and 0.1, respectively, in the study region. All the declining trends weresignificantly at the confidence level of 0.05. Melting of sea ice resulted in the solar heat input to the ice-ocean system increasing by about 15% in 1 June–19 August from 2000 to 2009. However, due to the counter-balance effects of the loss of ice area and the enhanced ice surface melting, the trend of solar heat input to the ice solely was insignificant.
Year: 2016