Operational climate monitoring program of the arctic ice cover

The predominant feature of the Arctic Ocean is the presence of a perennial sea ice cover that shapes the climate of the region, by greatly altering the radiation budget, and restricting heat and mass exchanges between the ocean and atmosphere. The Arctic is believed to be particularly sensitive to global climate change that may result from increases in so-called greenhouse gases. Greenhouse warming scenarios using ocean-atmosphere general circulation models (GCMs) tend to predict enhanced warming in the polar regions, with the Arctic expected to warm about 3–4°C during the next half-century 1 . Some GCMs even show a complete or near-complete removal of the summer ice cover in the Arctic 2 . Thus, systematic, long-term observations of the Arctic ice cover may be useful for the early detection of global climate change 3 . The need is clearly indicated for operational climate monitoring of the Arctic ice cover, in the principles and framework of EuroGOOS. In particular, such a monitoring system fits well within the Climate Monitoring, Assessment and Prediction module. Also, because the Arctic ice cover greatly affects fisheries in the marginal seas, offshore oil and gas activities, and transport operations, such monitoring has relevance to the Marine Meteorological and Oceanographic Operational Services module. Here we describe 1) the existing climate monitoring program of the Arctic ice cover, developed by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC), Bergen, Norway, and 2) the potential for improvements, including the use of other observations and models of the Arctic ice cover.