Remote Sensing of a Changing Arctic

Satellite images, such as this one of the Mackenzie River flowing into the Beaufort Sea, can increase our knowledge of seasonal event timing across a large area. NASA image.

High-resolution satellite imagery can be a useful tool to understand trends across a large region. It can be used for counting wildlife, detecting changes in green-up, extent of sea ice, and even plankton blooms in the oceans. This article summarizes seasonal data across the circumpolar Arctic related to growing season, timing of green-up, and marine primary production.

Satellite-based decadal change assessments of pan-Arctic environments

Abstract

Remote sensing can advance the work of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program through monitoring of satellite-derived terrestrial and marine physical and ecological variables. Standardized data facilitate an unbiased comparison across variables and environments. Using MODIS standard products of land surface temperature, percent snow covered area, NDVI, EVI, phenology, burned area, marine chlorophyll, CDOM, sea surface temperature, and marine primary productivity, significant trends were observed in almost all variables between 2000 and 2017. Analysis of seasonal data revealed significant breakpoints in temporal trends. Within the terrestrial environment, data showed significant increasing trends in land surface temperature and NDVI. In the marine environment, significant increasing trends were detected in primary productivity. Significantly earlier onset of green up date was observed in bioclimate subzones C&E and longer end of growing season in B&E. Terrestrial and marine parameters showed similar rates of change with unidirectional change in terrestrial and significant directional and magnitude shifts in marine.

Jenkins, L. K., T. Barry, K. R. Bosse, W. S. Currie, T. Christensen, S. Longan, R. A. Shuchman, D. Tanzer, and J. J. Taylor. 2020. Satellite-based decadal change assessments of pan-Arctic environments. Ambio 49(3): 820-832.

Explore more in Ambio 49(3), March 2020: Special Issue: Terrestrial biodiversity in a rapidly changing Arctic.