HR: 0800h
AN: C41A-0183    [Abstracts]
TI: The role of moisture transport in the arctic freshwater cycle
AU: * Tang, W
EM: wqt@pacific.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 300-323, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Liu, W
EM: liu@pacific.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 300-323, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AB: This study focuses on understanding the impact of recent Arctic warming to the regional freshwater cycle from the perspective of the atmospheric integrated moisture transport (IMT), estimated based on measurements by multi- spaceborne- sensors. As one of the important components in the polar water/ice balance, IMT is traditionally derived from inadequate rawinsonde measurements. A method is developed to retrieve IMT over oceans using spaceborne scatterometer and microwave radiometer observations. More than five years (from August 1999 to present) daily IMT fields, at 0.5∞x0.5∞ resolution over global ocean, were produced by combining measurements from NASA scatterometer SeaWinds on QuikSCAT (QSCAT) and the Special Sensor Microwave/ Imagers (SSM/I) from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Retrieved IMT fields have demonstrated credible annual and interannual variations in polar regions. Taking advantage of unprecedented coverage and resolution of satellite data, we were able to depict the temporal and spatial variation of IMT across the boundary of Greenland ice-sheet along a simulated coastline surrounding the Greenland, and revealed its correlation with observed abnormal Greenland ice-sheet melting during 2002 and 2003. The IMT data was also analyzed in the context of global water cycle to explore the linkage between changes in arctic freshwater cycle and global climate.
DE: 4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting