Maximum temperature drove snow cover expansion from the Arctic, 2000\u20132008

Yi Lin,Miao Jiang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15397-3

Yi Lin, Miao Jiang

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15397-3

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Abstract

Investigating annual phenology of snow cover around the circumpolar Arctic is of significance for better grasping the effect of environment variation on global climate change, and previous studies found that temperature is the kernel climate feature interlinking with snow onset. However, how temperature closely drives snow cover expansion has not been fully exploited. Our analysis based on the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) (i.e., SSM/I-SSMIS) data during 2000–2008 showed that the snow onset date (Do) was primarily driven by the maximum temperature approximately at the 22nd day in advance (termed as the optimal period, OP) in the Northern Hemisphere. Specifically, the spatial patterns of the Do trends are similar with the previous finding, e.g., east Europe and west Asia exhibiting the most notable Do delay, and the OP days in latitude show the principal trend of first decreasing and then increasing. These characteristics can be attributed to the variation of the maximum temperature feature in latitude. Overall, the derivation of the statistical rules of temperature driving snow cover expansion from the Arctic facilitates predicting the occurrence of snow and understanding various terrestrial processes.

Highlights

Previous studies found that SCP in the NH has kept varying[3,12] and its variations are related to different environmental factors[3,6]
The Alaska and Russian Far East exhibited the earliest snow onset dates, the most obvious Do delay occurred over the East Europe and West Asia, and the West and Middle Europe underwent almost no real-sense snow covering, as defined in Introduction
The values of the grid-level snow-triggering temperature (STT), in terms of the prescribed temperature feature parameter of the maximum temperature relating to the highest “driving” percentage, are annually illustrated in Fig. 6a and b, which display the spatial characteristics of the temperature feature able of driving snow cover expansion across the NH

Summary

Introduction

Previous studies found that SCP in the NH has kept varying[3,12] and its variations are related to different environmental factors[3,6]. The objective of this study is to investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of the NH snow onset dates (Do) around the Arctic and to figure out its temperature-driving rules This kind of knowledge is critical for both fundamentally improving land surface models[12] to investigate the inherent mechanism of environment factors driving snow cover expansion and macroscopically projecting future climate situations[12] and the feedbacks of snow cover change to permafrost and vegetation[23]. The analysis was conducted based on the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) (i.e., SSM/I-SSMIS) dataset (2000–2008)[24], which derived the necessitated variables of land surface temperature (LST) and snow cover status synchronously at the daily scale from the same set of satellite remote sensing data. More details about the settings of the present study can refer to Methods

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion