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The State of Arctic Sea Ice Gary Hufford, NOAA/NWS Alaska Region Lawson Brigham, Executive Director Arctic Research Commission. Comments on Sea Ice in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and Future Needs for Coastal Alaska. PRIDE Alaska Coastal Climatologies Wind/Wave Workshop
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The State of Arctic Sea IceGary Hufford, NOAA/NWS Alaska RegionLawson Brigham, Executive DirectorArctic Research Commission
Comments on Sea Ice in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and Future Needs for Coastal Alaska PRIDE Alaska Coastal Climatologies Wind/Wave Workshop Anchorage, Alaska 2 - 3 August 2005 Lawson Brigham Deputy Director, U.S. Arctic Research Commission usarc@acsalaska.net
Observational data show a decrease of coverage Sea Ice 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 • Decrease is • largest in • summer • Decrease is • largest since • late 1980s Sea Ice Extent (million km2) Sea Ice Extent (million km2)
16 September 2002 16 September 2003 16 September 2004
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Climate model projections of sea ice extent: 2000 - 2100 March September MAR SEPT
‘Arctic Sea Ice Atlas of the Future’ Projected Ice Extent – Hadley Model
Sea Ice in Alaska’s Coastal Seas • 23 June 2005 – Established working group • Represented – USARC, AOOS, NWS (Anchorage), UAF, NIC, NSIDC, PMEL, USFWS, CRREL, UW/APL • Issue – Lack of long-term, robust sea ice data set for Alaska’s coastal seas • Needs - Arctic Climate Impact Assessment - Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment - Integrated Bering Sea Ecosystem Research - Many Stakeholders
Examples of Ongoing Sea Ice Work • NWS – Regional sea ice charts • NIC – Global charts; George Mason U. digitizing for usable database • NSIDC – W. Dehn collection ~ 7000 charts (1953 – 1986) • PMEL – SAR data analysis • CRREL – Range of research • UAA/MMS – Sea ice atlas • UAF – Spring leads/landfast; energy + mass balance; HF radar; ice thickness by airborne sensing • UW/APL – Fast ice; range of research