Science Source
Jia Wang, Xuezhi Bai, Haoguo Hu, Anne Clites, Marie Colton, and Brent Lofgren
American Meteorological Society
Published date July 11, 2011

Temporal and Spatial Variability of Great Lakes Ice Cover, 1973–2010

  • Investigates temporal and spatial variability of ice cover in the Great Lakes using historical satellite measurements from 1973 to 2010
  • Constructs the seasonal cycle of ice cover for all the lakes, including Lake St. Clair
  • Finds a unique feature in the seasonal cycle, that the standard deviations (i.e., variability) of ice cover are larger than the climatological means for each lake
  • Holds that this indicates that Great Lakes ice cover experiences large variability in response to predominant natural climate forcing and has poor predictability
  • Uses spectral analysis to show that lake ice has both quasi-decadal and interannual periodicities of ~8 and ~4 yr
  • Finds there was a significant downward trend in ice coverage from 1973 to the present for all of the lakes, with Lake Ontario having the largest, and Lakes Erie and St. Clair having the smallest
  • Results show the translated total loss in lake ice over the entire 38-yr record varies from 37% in Lake St. Clair (least) to 88% in Lake Ontario (most), and the total loss for overall Great Lakes ice coverage is 71%, while Lake Superior places second with a 79% loss 
  • Analysis shows that a major response of ice cover to atmospheric forcing is in phase in all six lakes, accounting for 80.8% of the total variance
  • Analysis shows that lake ice mainly responds to the combined Arctic Oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation patterns

Related Content

Science Source
| Journal of Great Lakes Research
A new look at lake-effect snowfall trends in the Laurentian Great Lakes using a temporally homogeneous data set
Kenneth E. Kunkel, Leslie Ensor, Michael Palecki et al
Science Source
| American Meteorological Society
Trends in twentieth-century US snowfall using a quality-controlled dataset
Kenneth E. Kunkel, Michael Palecki, Leslie Ensor et al
Science Source
| American Meteorological Society
Increasing Great Lake–Effect Snowfall during the Twentieth Century: A Regional Response to Global Warming?
Adam W. Burnett, Matthew E. Kirby, Henry T. Mullins et al
Science Source
| American Meteorological Society
Sensitivity of Lake-Effect Snowfall to Lake Ice Cover and Temperature in the Great Lakes Region
David M. Wright, Derek J. Posselt, and Allison L. Steiner
Resource Hub