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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 6, NUMBER 12, DECEMBER 1993

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE: ICE COVER

Item #d93dec104

"A Recent Sea-Ice Retreat West of the Antarctic Peninsula," S.S. Jacobs, (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observ., Palisades NY 10964), J.C. Comiso, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20(12), 1171-1174, June 18, 1993.

A record decrease in sea ice extent was observed in the Bellinghausen Sea from mid-1988 through early 1991. Its coincidence with record high regional air temperatures makes the event a potential analogy for future climate change.

Item #d93dec105

"Changes of Characteristics of Arctic Sea Ice in the Case of a Doubling of Carbon Dioxide," M.P. Kolomeev, S.L. Malyshev, Soviet Meteor. & Hydrol., 4, 34-40 (p. 45 Russian), 1992.

A 3-D energy balance model predicts that summer ice cover area would decrease from 6.2 to 1.1 million km2, and would remain only north of Greenland. Winter ice cover area would decrease by 18% and mean thickness in the zone of 80-90·N would decrease twofold.

Item #d93dec106

"Interannual Variability of Landfast Ice Thickness in the Canadian High Arctic, 1950-89," R.D. Brown (Can. Clim. Ctr., LaSalle Acad., Block E, 373 Sussex Dr., Ottawa ON K1A 0H3, Can.), P. Cote, Arctic, 45(3), 273-284, Sep. 1992.

A heat-transfer model showed that snow insulation explained 30-60% of variability, other snow-related processes 15-30%, and annual variation in air temperature less than 4%. However, a response surface sensitivity analysis has indicated that landfast ice would be more sensitive to air temperature variations under a warmer, snowier environment.