North to the future: Barrow as a baseline for intensive Arctic lake monitoring
Abstract
More than one fourth of the lakes on earth are located in the Arctic, where climate change is known to be occurring at a rapid pace. Many of these lakes are located in regions of continuous or discontinuous permafrost, and the Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP) of northern Alaska has an especially high density of thermokarst lakes (or "thaw lakes"). Roughly 40% of the ACP landscape is comprised of thaw lakes or drained thaw lake basins, highlighting the need for long-term lake monitoring through programs such as the Arctic Observing Network (AON). In recognition of this, a collaborative project was begun in 2012 to establish a "Circum-Arctic Lakes Observation Network (CALON)," which includes extensive monitoring of nearly 60 lakes on the ACP. The CALON project also incorporates intensive monitoring of a few representative "focus lakes," including Emaiksoun Lake in Barrow, Alaska, as well as other focus lakes in Atqasuk and Inigok. Emaiksoun Lake was the site of an intensive energy balance study from 2008-2010, and a new data buoy was deployed in July of 2012 to expand on this earlier work. Supplementary instrument deployments in April (retrieved at ice break-up) have also provided additional valuable information on snow / ice thickness, temperature, and albedo. In this study, we provide an overview of the new data being collected at the Barrow CALON site, including detailed, high-frequency measurements of ice and water temperature, wave height, evaporation rates, incoming and outgoing solar and longwave radiation, and numerous ancillary meteorological variables. Comparisons are also made with energy balance data collected during the 2008-2010 period to investigate the interannual and seasonal variability observed at the field site across the four years. Much of the data are available in real time through the CALON website, and the study is intended to provide a baseline for future energy and water balance monitoring on Arctic thaw lakes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMGC21A0950L
- Keywords:
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- 1807 HYDROLOGY / Climate impacts;
- 1814 HYDROLOGY / Energy budgets;
- 1833 HYDROLOGY / Hydroclimatology;
- 1845 HYDROLOGY / Limnology