The temporal signal of sea ice variability in the polar basin from wavelet analysis of passive microwave sea ice concentrations

Abstract

Analysis of processes forcing temporal change in climate has fostered the development of new procedures for identifying significant patterns and episodes from sequential satellite imagery. Particularly rewarding results have been derived from sea ice concentration and snow water equivalent derived from passive microwave imagery. We have a remarkable archive of such data that extends back to 1978. These data can be used to highlight factors that may contribute to the anomalously warm years that have been identified within the past decade. In this study we report on the use of correlations of wavelets of the Principal Component temporal loadings for sea ice concentration and concurrent patterns of atmospheric data. This approach will provide insight beyond that evident in traditional linear correlations of trend patterns.