Connotea
CiteULike
del.ico.us
BibSonomyAbstract
The role of snow cover in the warming of arctic permafrost
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
Air temperatures at high latitudes are expected to rise significantly as anthropogenic carbon builds up in the atmosphere. There is concern that warming of the ground in permafrost regions will result in additional release of carbon to the atmosphere. Recent emphasis has thus been on predicting the magnitude and spatial distribution of future warming at high latitudes. Modeling results show that changes in below ground temperatures can be influenced as much by temporal variations of snow cover as by changes in the near-surface air temperature. The recent (1983–1998) changes in permafrost temperatures on the North Slope of Alaska are consistent with decadal scale variability in snow cover. The implication of these results is that a better understanding of how winter precipitation patterns at high latitudes will change over the coming decades is needed to comprehend evolving permafrost temperatures.
Received 14 March 2003; accepted 2 June 2003; published 15 July 2003.
Citation: (2003), The role of snow cover in the warming of arctic permafrost, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(13), 1721, doi:10.1029/2003GL017337.
Cited By