Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Arctic Sea-Ice Melt In 2008 And The Role Of Solar Heating, Donald K. Perovich, Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Kathleen F. Jones, Bonnie Light

Dartmouth Scholarship

There has been a marked decline in the summer extent of Arctic sea ice over the past few decades. Data from autonomous ice mass-balance buoys can enhance our understanding of this decline. These buoys monitor changes in snow deposition and ablation, ice growth, and ice surface and bottom melt. Results from the summer of 2008 showed considerable large-scale spatial variability in the amount of surface and bottom melt. Small amounts of melting were observed north of Greenland, while melting in the southern Beaufort Sea was quite large. Comparison of net solar heat input to the ice and heat required for …