Monitoring the melt season length of the Barnes Ice Cap over the 1979–2010 period using active and passive microwave remote sensing data

Dupont, Florent; Royer, A.; Langlois, Alexandre; Gressent, Alicia; Picard, Ghislain; Fily, Michel; Cliche, P.; Chum, Miroslav

doi:10.1002/hyp.9382

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…This has been observed by Dupont et al [2011] on Barnes Ice Cap using spaceborne passive microwave measurements, as described earlier under section 2.6. In Figure 2f, we show the duration of the melt season at Penny Ice Cap summit since 1979, inferred with the same type of measurements and using the same detection algorithm.…”

Section: Implications Of Summer Melt and Firn Temperature Trendssupporting

confidence: 56%

Summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island: Past and recent trends and implications for regional climate

et al. 2012

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[1] At latitude 67 N, Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island is the southernmost large ice cap in the Canadian Arctic, yet its past and recent evolution is poorly documented. Here we present a synthesis of climatological observations, mass balance measurements and proxy climate data from cores drilled on the ice cap over the past six decades (1953 to 2011). We find that starting in the 1980s, Penny Ice Cap entered a phase of enhanced melt rates related to rising summer and winter air temperatures across the eastern Arctic. Presently, 70 to 100% (volume) of the annual accumulation at the ice cap summit is in the form of refrozen meltwater. Recent surface melt rates are found to be comparable to those last experienced more than 3000 years ago. Enhanced surface melt, water percolation and refreezing have led to a downward transfer of latent heat that raised the subsurface firn temperature by 10 C (at 10 m depth) since the mid-1990s. This process may accelerate further mass loss of the ice cap by pre-conditioning the firn for the ensuing melt season. Recent warming in the Baffin region has been larger in winter but more regular in summer, and observations on Penny Ice Cap suggest that it was relatively uniform over the 2000-m altitude range of the ice cap. Our findings are consistent with trends in glacier mass loss in the Canadian High Arctic and regional sea-ice cover reduction, reinforcing the view that the Arctic appears to be reverting back to a thermal state not seen in millennia.

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Section: Implications Of Summer Melt and Firn Temperature Trendssupporting

confidence: 56%

Summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island: Past and recent trends and implications for regional climate

et al. 2012

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“…This acceleration is more than twice that estimated over similar periods for northern Baffin Island glaciers (North of 68.6 • N, excluding Barnes Ice Cap). Barnes Ice Cap itself, located on central Baffin Island at elevations between 400 and 1100 m a.s.l., recently experienced a strong thinning acceleration (Sneed et al, 2008;Dupont et al, 2012), resulting in a mass loss rate of −1.08 ± 0.12 m a −1 w.e. between 2005 and 2011 (Gardner et al, 2012).…”

Section: Comparison To Other Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The early autumn weeks, in particular, are a period during which ice-free, open waters surrounding Meta Incognita Peninsula are a large local source of heat to the lower troposphere, while the frequent low-level cloud cover in this season may contribute a further downwelling longwave radiation flux (Dunlap et al, 2007). In this respect, the situation for GRIC and TNIC could differ from that of Barnes Ice Cap (70 • N) on central Baffin Island, where the lengthening of the melt season has been attributed to more frequent early spring thaw events (Dupont et al, 2012). Spaceborne monitoring of the melt duration over GRIC and TNIC by passive microwave sensing would help to verify if these two glacierized sectors of Baffin Island respond to regional warming in different ways.…”

Section: Regional Context and Climatic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Area, elevation and mass changes of the two southernmost ice caps of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago between 1952 and 2014

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Grinnell and Terra Nivea Ice Caps are located on the southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. These relatively small ice caps have received little attention compared to the much larger ice masses further north. Their evolution can, however, give valuable information about the impact of the recent Arctic warming at lower latitudes (i.e. ~ 62.5° N). In this paper, we measure or estimate historical and recent changes of area, elevation and mass of both ice caps using in situ, airborne and spaceborne data sets, including imagery from the Pléiades satellites. The area of Terra Nivea Ice Cap has decreased by 34 % since the late 1950s, while that of Grinnell Ice Cap has decreased by 20 % since 1952. For both ice caps, the areal reduction accelerated at the beginning of the 21st century. The estimated glacier-wide mass balance was −0.37 ± 0.21 m a−1 water equivalent (w.e.) over Grinnell Ice Cap for the 1952–2014 period, and −0.47 ± 0.16 m a−1 w.e. over Terra Nivea Ice Cap for the 1958/59–2014 period. Terra Nivea Ice Cap has experienced an accelerated rate of mass loss of −1.77 ± 0.36 m a−1 w.e. between 2007 and 2014. This rate is 5.9 times as negative when compared to the 1958/59–2007 period (−0.30 ± 0.19 m a−1 w.e.) and 2 times as negative when compared to the mass balance of other glaciers in the southern parts of Baffin Island over the 2003–2009 period. A similar acceleration in mass loss is suspected for the Grinnell Ice Cap, given the calculated elevation changes and the proximity to Terra Nivea Ice Cap. The recent increase in mass loss rates for these two ice caps is linked to a strong near-surface regional warming and a lengthening of the melt season into the autumn that may be indirectly strengthened by a later freezing of sea ice in the Hudson Strait sector. On a methodological level, our study illustrates the strong potential of Pléiades satellite data to unlock the under-exploited archive of old aerial photographs.

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“…The cloudy pixels left in the combined MODIS SCA products were simply replaced with the corresponding AMSR‐E SCA pixels to produce a cloud‐free MODIS and AMSR‐E combined SCA product (MAC SCA ). However, due to the sensitivity of AMSR‐E SCA to melting snow, because the emissivity of wet snow drastically increases (Dupont et al ., ), only AMSR‐E SCA pixels reporting snow were used such that the no data (or ‘cloudy’) class was not entirely removed. MAC SCA created using TAC and TACW are henceforth referred as MAC and MACW, respectively.…”

Section: Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow cover estimation using blended MODIS and AMSR‐E data for improved watershed‐scale spring streamflow simulation in Quebec, Canada

Bergeron

Royer

Turcotte

et al. 2014

Hydrological Processes

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Abstract:Estimation of the amount of water stored in snow is a principal source of error for spring streamflow simulations in snow-dominant regions. Measuring this variable throughout large and often remote areas using snow surveys is an expensive task since they are practically point measurements. Remote sensing is an alternative method, which can cover much larger areas in little time, but further research is required to reduce uncertainties on snow water equivalent (SWE) estimations, especially during the melting period. However, optical-near infrared (NIR) and passive microwave remote sensing can detect snow cover area (SCA) with greater certainty, which can be used as a proxy for SWE. The two datasets work in complementary ways considering their spatial resolutions and cloud cover limitations. This study developed an SCA product from blended passive microwave (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer -Earth Observing System: AMSR-E) and optical-NIR (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer: MODIS) remote sensing data to improve estimates of streamflow caused by snowmelt during the spring period. The blended product was assimilated in a snowmelt model (SPH-AV) coupled with the MOHYSE hydrological model through a modified direct insertion method. SCA estimated from AMSR-E data was first compared with in situ snow-depth measurements and SCA estimated with MODIS. Results showed an agreement of over 95% between AMSR-E-derived and cloud-free MODIS-derived SCA products in the spring. Comparison with ground stations confirmed the underestimation of snow cover by AMSR-E. Assimilation of the blended snow product in SPH-AV coupled with MOHYSE yielded an overall improvement of the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient comparable with simulations with no updates, which is comparable to results driven by biweekly snow surveys. Assimilation of remotely sensed passive microwave data was also found to have little positive impact on streamflow simulation due to the difficulty of differentiating melting snow from snow-free surfaces.

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Monitoring the melt season length of the Barnes Ice Cap over the 1979–2010 period using active and passive microwave remote sensing data

Cited by 24 publications

References 58 publications

Summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island: Past and recent trends and implications for regional climate

Summer melt rates on Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island: Past and recent trends and implications for regional climate

Area, elevation and mass changes of the two southernmost ice caps of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago between 1952 and 2014

Snow cover estimation using blended MODIS and AMSR‐E data for improved watershed‐scale spring streamflow simulation in Quebec, Canada

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