Author(s): Claude R. Duguay
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Lakes are sensitive indicators of climate variability and change. They also play an important role in the energy and water balance at local and regional scales, influencing climate and weather. One key variable that is sensitive to climate conditions and that influences lake-atmosphere interactions in cold environments is ice cover. Its presence/absence and thickness have an impact on energy/heat exchanges with the overlying atmosphere. Ground-based observations and lake models are useful for studying the response and role of ice cover in lake-climate interactions. Satellite remote sensing observations are increasingly being used as a complement to these approaches as they provide the spatial coverage not captured by ground-based observational networks and also the means to evaluate and improve lake models, either used in standalone mode or as lake parameterization schemes in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and regional climate models. This paper presents recent advances in the development of satellite-based lake ice products (ice extent and phenology, ice concentration and classification, ice thickness and snow depth, and ice/snow temperature and albedo) and their evaluation, as well as their usage for climate monitoring, lake model evaluation and assimilation into a NWP model. The paper concludes with a brief outlook for remote sensing of lake ice in light of recent and upcoming Earth Observation satellite missions.
Year: 2014