Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Oh The Places Snow Blows: Observations And Impacts Of Snow Redistribution On Arctic Sea Ice, David Clemens-Sewall

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Arctic sea ice has declined dramatically due to climate change. This decline impacts Arctic communities, ecosystems, international trade, and the world's climate. However, due to uncertain physical processes, climate models generally do not capture the severity of the observed decline---adding uncertainty to projections of future climate change. A major uncertainty in the Arctic sea ice component of climate models is how much heat passes through the snow on top of the ice in the winter. This heat flux controls how much ice grows each winter, impacting how much ice survives the summer melt. Snow is an excellent thermal insulator (about …