Mallett, Robbie D.C.;
(2022)
Snow observations from Arctic Ocean Soviet drifting stations: legacy and new directions.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The Arctic Ocean is one of the most rapidly changing regions on the planet. Its warming climate has driven reductions in the region's sea ice cover which are likely unprecedented in recent history, with many of the environmental impacts being mediated by the overlying snow cover. As well as impacting energetic and material fluxes, the snow cover also obscures the underlying ice from direct satellite observation. While the radar waves emitted from satellite-mounted altimeters have some ability to penetrate snow cover, an understanding of snow geophysical properties remains critical to remote sensing of sea ice thickness. The paucity of Arctic Ocean snow observations was recently identified as a key knowledge gap and uncertainty by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. This thesis aims to address that knowledge gap. Between 1937 and 1991 the Soviet Union operated a series of 31 crewed stations which drifted around the Arctic Ocean. During their operation, scientists took detailed observations of the atmospheric conditions, the physical oceanography, and the snow cover on the sea ice. This thesis contains four projects that feature these observations. The first two consider a well known snow depth and density climatology that was compiled from observations at the stations between 1954 & 1991. Specifically, Chapter two considers the role of seasonally evolving snow density in sea ice thickness retrievals, and Chapter three considers the impact of the climatological treatment itself on satellite estimates of sea ice thickness variability and trends. Chapter four presents a statistical model for the sub-kilometre distribution of snow depth on Arctic sea ice through analysis of snow depth transect data. Chapter five then compares the characteristics of snow melt onset at the stations with satellite observations and results from a recently developed model.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Snow observations from Arctic Ocean Soviet drifting stations: legacy and new directions |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Arctic, Climate, Sea ice, Snow |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10161766 |
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