Challenges in Understanding Arctic Hydrology System Changes

Daqing Yang
Water and Environment Research Center
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks

Observational records show significant climate change in the high latitude regions over the past several decades. Hydrologic response of the large northern watersheds to climate change and variation is one of the key issues in understanding atmosphere-land interactions in the northern regions. This presentation will provide a comprehensive review of arctic hydrologic system changes induced by human activities (particularly large reservoirs) and by climate variations/changes. This emphasizes on regional/basin-scale hydro-climatic characteristics and differences, including streamflow, river ice thickness, and water temperature regimes and changes over the past 40-50 years for the largest northern watersheds, such as the Lena, Yenisei, Ob rivers, Yukon and Mackenzie basins. It will also discuss basin snowcover seasonal cycles (including both snowcover extent and SWE), and the compatibility of remotely sensed snowcover data/products with winter snowfall and river streamflow records. Based on the discussions and synthesis of other work, this presentation will summarize the major challenges in our understanding of arctic hydrology system changes and variations.

For more information contact: Horacio Toniolo (907) 474 7977