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Ice and Snow Thickness Variability and Change in the High Arctic Ocean Observed by In Situ Measurements
Author(s) -
Haas Christian,
Beckers Justin,
King Josh,
Silis Arvids,
Stroeve Julienne,
Wilkinson Jeremy,
Notenboom Bernice,
Schweiger Axel,
Hendricks Stefan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl075434
Subject(s) - snow , sea ice , geology , arctic , arctic ice pack , climatology , cryosphere , glacier , oceanography , geomorphology
In April 2017, we collected unique, extensive in situ data of sea ice and snow thickness. At 10 sampling sites, located under a CryoSat‐2 overpass, between Ellesmere Island and 87.1°N mean and modal total ice thicknesses ranged between 2 to 3.4 m and 1.8 to 2.9 m, respectively. Coincident snow thicknesses ranged between 0.3 to 0.47 m (mean) and 0.1 to 0.5 m (mode). The profile spanned the complete multiyear ice zone in the Lincoln Sea, into the first‐year ice zone farther north. Complementary snow thickness measurements near the North Pole showed a mean thickness of 0.31 m. Compared with scarce measurements from other years, multiyear ice was up to 0.75 m thinner than in 2004, but not significantly different from 2011 and 2014. We found excellent agreement with a commonly used snow climatology and with published long‐term ice thinning rates. There was reasonable agreement with CryoSat‐2 thickness retrievals.