Interannual Variability of Hudson Bay Ice Thickness

Abstract

Seasonal sea ice in Hudson Bay plays a key role in determining the regional climatology. In this paper, the relationship between ice thickness with local surface air temperature and snow depth is explored at nine locations in the Hudson Bay region. A weak but statistically significant correlation was found between basin averaged ice thickness and concurrent surface air temperature. At the local scale, however, ice thickness correlated well with winter air temperature at only three measuring sites, explaining the poor relationship at the basin scale. A relationship was also identified between winter ice thickness and previous summer's air temperatures at two measuring sites, suggesting that preconditioning of Hudson Bay waters may play a significant role in sea-ice formation in some subregions of Hudson Bay. Simple and multiple linear regression analyses indicate that at the majority of the measuring sites, snow depth is a more important contributor to the inter-annual variability of ice thickness than winter air temperatures. The results of this study have important implications regarding the use of landfast ice thickness data to detect an early climate change signal over Hudson Bay.

Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change: Producing Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) and Bush Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) for Improved Food Security and Resilience in a Canadian Subarctic First Nations Community

“…Fort Albany, like many other communities in arctic and subarctic regions of the world, has already experienced climatic warming [25]. Climate change modeling for this region predicts a future increase in surface-air temperatures and summer rainfall events resulting in potentially favorable agricultural conditions [13,21,[23][24][25][26][27].…”

East-West Asymmetry in Coastal Temperatures of Hudson Bay as a Proxy for Sea Ice

“…Including average air temperature during the ice-free season in this method yielded improved ice retreat predictions for certain locations. On Hudson Bay proper, basin-averaged air temperature shows a weak correlation with concurrent ice thickness, but its influence is seen as secondary to that of other factors, such as snow depth (Gough et al, 2004b). A stronger relationship exists at the local level between summer temperatures and ice thickness during the subsequent ice-covered season, suggesting that preconditioning or thermal memory is more determinant than coincident temperatures (Gough et al, 2004b).…”

Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change: The Production of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and Bush Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Crops for Improved Food Security and Resilience in a First Nation Community in the Canadian Sub-Arctic

“…Fort Albany, like many other communities in arctic and subarctic regions of the world, has already experienced climatic warming [26]. Climate change modeling for this region predicts a future increase in surface-air temperatures and summer rainfall events resulting in potentially favorable agricultural conditions [14,22,[24][25][26][27][28]. Fort Albany has a history of unsustainable agricultural practices [13].…”