About this Project

This project involves the investigation of long-term changes in landfast ice and how these changes contribute to the arctic freshwater budget. What is landfast ice? A simple definition is sea ice attached or fastened to land. The research is part of the Arctic Freshwater Initiative funded by NSF. Our approach consists of modeling landfast ice thickness and integrating these results with a 26-year record of landfast ice extent observation around the whole perimeter of the Arctic Basin. In particular, the project will analyze the basin-wide changes in landfast ice cover, including sea ice growth/melt, brine flux, and freshwater storage. From the resulting information, the project expects to learn about long-term variability of landfast ice under different Arctic environmental conditions.

Specific project goals

• Examine the interannual fluctuation of landfast ice extent for the whole Arctic Basin;
  
• Investigate the spatial and temporal changes in fast ice growth and melt as well as brine flux due to ice formation;
  
• Analyze the long-term changes in landfast ice volume in terms of its freshwater storage in response to Arctic climate variations, such as changes in snowfall, surface air temperature, wind, and major river discharge.
  
• Integrate research activities with the university summer undergraduate program to stimulate and mentor students in the scientific learning process.

Thanks to:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) for funding this research through grant OPP-0229473, which is part of NSF's Arctic Freshwater Initiative Program; the National Snow Ice Data Center (NSID) for providing the CD-ROM of sea ice charts;the National Ice Center (NIC) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for digitizing the charts; NASA for approving access to satellite SAR images; and finally to the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) for providing weather observation data derived from Arctic coastal stations.

This material is based upon work supported by NSF Grant No. OPP-0229473. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.