Xiaogang Shi, Déry SJ, Groisman PY, Lettenmaier DP

Journal of Climate

Published date September 7, 2012

Relationships between Recent Pan-Arctic Snow Cover and Hydroclimate Trends

  • Finds that late spring/early summer snow cover extent decreased over the Arctic over the period of 1972–2006 based on the NOAA weekly snow cover map
  • Finds that the highest SCE values for May and June all occurred in the first half of the record
  • Finds that surface net radiation (SNR) is the primary source of energy for the snow cover changes while sensible heat flux makes a secondary contribution
  • Finds that these surface energy changes in turn are driven by changes in albedo, increased air temperature and increased water vapor pressure