Enhancing NASA's Contribution to Arctic Terrestrial Hydrology and the Study of Polar Change
Abstract
In a recent report by the National Academies, an interdisciplinary committee assessed NASA's polar geophysical datasets in the context of the science questions driving the Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) and other avenues of polar research. The report examines data sets in terms of the major ESE themes: ongoing changes in polar climate and the biosphere, forcings of the polar climate system, responses and feedbacks to the forcing, consequences of change in the polar regions, and prediction of such changes. It includes a matrix of science needs and available data sets and, from that, identifies high-priority measurement needs, many of which are directly relevant to Arctic hydrology. The greatest needs are improved measurements of polar precipitation, surface albedo, freshwater discharge from terrestrial regions, surface temperatures and turbulent fluxes, permafrost extent and dynamics, ocean salinity, ice sheet mass flux, land surface (especially vegetative) characteristics, and sea ice thickness. For Arctic hydrological studies, key needs include surface radiation parameters (albedo, roughness), especially with regard to the timing of ice-out in rivers and lakes, the associated pulse of freshwater discharge, biogeochemical fluxes, and aquatic biology. There is a particular need for pan-Arctic datasets of vegetative characteristics such as leaf area index, structural composition, canopy density, albedo, disturbance characteristics, wetland extent, and nitrogen deposition. Pan-Arctic information of this type will require novel efforts in the synthesis of different products, often from different sensors. Such information, as well as high-resolution surface elevation and topography, is needed for Arctic land system models that include hydrology and ecosystem dynamics. Key changes to be anticipated or predicted by these models include changes in water supplies from snow and snow-fed rivers, effects of physical environmental change on terrestrial productivity and vegetative distribution, and effects of changes in growing season and primary production on agriculture, forestry and disturbance regimes (e.g., fire, insects).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUFM.H32E..10W
- Keywords:
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- 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1640 Remote sensing;
- 1800 HYDROLOGY;
- 3394 Instruments and techniques;
- 9315 Arctic region