{"title":"Severity of the present-day climate in the Polar regions of Siberia","authors":"E. Maksyutova, L. Bashalkhanova","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-402","url":null,"abstract":"Over the period 1981–2015 severe climatic conditions on the North of Siberia (area within 66–162° E above the Polar Circle) were characterized by significant space-time variations of air temperature at the cold period of the year. This conclusion is made on the basis of analysis of observations made about 13 hour of local time. Positive changes in the mean seasonal air temperature were observed here in October–April. The largest rates of air temperature rise with a pronounced gradient to the West were noted in high latitudes, i.e. in Arctic glacial and polar desert landscapes. The change in weather severity which is one of characteristics of the climate discomfort was analyzed by means of the Arnoldi index (TA). This index reflects the combined effect of negative temperatures and stiff wind on the thermal state of the open surface of the human body. Together with the space-time dynamics of the actual TA values, important values of TA are its threshold values (more than 30 and more than 45 units) which determine a degree of discomfort. Duration of these periods, limiting a possibility of a person's stay in the open air, is also extremely important as well. In recent decades (1981–2015), the spatial differentiation of the number of days (from 80 to 160) limiting the human’s stay in the open air reflects in the main fluctuations of the air temperature and wind regime in polar landscapes. Slight warming (a rise of the air temperature) and small wind speed variability during the period from October to April in 1981–2015 resulted in a certain decrease in the index of weather severity in relation to the period 1966–1980, since the last one did not did not go beyond limit of the interannual variability. Despite the stable increase in the air temperature in 1981–2015, no tendency to reduction of the number of days limiting human’s stay in the open air was noted. The duration of this period for 1981–2015 is similar to that observed in 1936–1964, and we believe that this is suggestive of manifestation of the cyclicity of atmospheric processes and is agreed with a gradual decrease in the rate of the temperature rise. In the last period duration of the period limiting human stay in the open air in the considered area remains high and ranges from 3.5 (to the west of 80° E) to 5 months on islands and capes of the region. So, as is demonstrated by the above example of space-time dynamics of the weather severity index at the time about 13 hours of local time, no decrease in the level of discomfort in polar Siberia is found.","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75766048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Annotated bibliography of the Russian literature on glaciology for 2017","authors":"V. Kotlyakov, L. Chernova","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-300","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-300","url":null,"abstract":"The proposed annual bibliography continues annotated lists of the Russian-language literature on glaciology that were regularly published in the past. It includes 277 references grouped into the atmospheric ice; 4) snow cover; 5) avalanches and glacial mudflows; 6) sea ice; 7) river and lake ice; 8) icings and ground ice; 9) the glaciers and ice caps; 10) palaeoglaciology. In addition to the works of the current year, some works of earlier years are added, that, for various reasons, were not included in previous bibliographies. ","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66931088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
L. Timokhov, V. E. Borodachev, I. V. Borodachev, N. Vyazigina, E. Mironov, M. Janout
{"title":"Role of hydrometeorological factors and solar activity in interannual variability of ice extent in the East Siberian Sea","authors":"L. Timokhov, V. E. Borodachev, I. V. Borodachev, N. Vyazigina, E. Mironov, M. Janout","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-397","url":null,"abstract":"Interannual changes of the summer ice coverage were investigated, and the role of hydrometeorological factors and solar activity in long-period fluctuations of the ice area in the East Siberian Sea was determined. Multivariate statistical analysis of time series of the ice cover, hydrometeorological elements, and the solar activity (SA), was performed for the period from 1950 to 2012 with regard for the cross-correlations of the analyzed variables that made possible to develop the equations of interannual fluctuations of the ice coverage in the East Siberian Sea in August and September. The equations include the following variables: air temperature in June–August of the current year TVI‑VIII; the atmospheric circulation presented by indices of Arctic oscillation (Arctic Oscillation, AO), Arctic dipole (Arctic Dipole, AD), Pacific North American oscillation (Pacific North American Oscillation, PNA); average annual runoff of river waters into the Laptev and East Siberian seas (RivLES) with a time shift of one and two years; average annual index of the North Atlantic thermal state (AMO) with a time lag of eight years; solar activity SA, presented by the average annual Wolf number with advancing of one year. Diagnostic calculations of the ice area by the obtained equations using the actual values of the indices did show a good agreement between the actual and calculated values in August and September from 1950 to 2012. These equations were used to calculate contribution of each factor to the general dispersion of fluctuations of the ice coverage. The most important factors influencing the ice cover of the Sea in August and September are: the air temperature; the atmospheric circulation, presented by the Arctic Oscillation at the end of winter; and Atlantic waters which are characterized by AMO with a time lag of eight years. The role of other factors, i.e. summer atmospheric circulation, river runoff into the above seas, and 11-year cycle of solar activity were found to be equal to only 5–10% for each. Basing on these estimates, it has been concluded that the obtained statistical equations may be used as the diagnostic models of interannual changes in the ice coverage.","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66931281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recent trends of snow avalanche regime in the Central Caucasus (Elbrus region as an example)","authors":"A. D. Oleinikov, N. Volodicheva","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-400","url":null,"abstract":"The climate change during cold seasons of 1995–2017 in the Central Caucasus is estimated, and its influence on the avalanche regime is shown. Data on the avalanche releases in the Central Caucasus for the period 1968– 2017 together with observations of high-altitude meteorological stations were used for the analysis. The paper presents estimates of snowiness of the winters and their frequency of occurrence in the area under investigation. The winter snowiness was noted to decrease since the beginning of the 2000s. The last decade of the period was not snowy, especially its series of six winters having very small amounts of snow. It is shown that in the second half of the XX century the heaviest snowfalls took place mostly in Januaries, and they were followed by releases of avalanches with the volumes exceeding 1 million cubic metres. In the early 2000‑ies, intensive January snowfalls were observed later, i.e. during the winter-spring period. In the warmer months March and April, the destructive potential of avalanches was noticeably smaller. In the present time, the warming and decrease of winter snowiness resulted in significant diminution of the avalanche hazard in the region. At the same time, on the background of general warming the certain increase in inter-seasonal variability of air temperature was noted. These changes may be compared to the warming of 1910–1945 when during its warmest phase the Europe suffered with one of the harshest winters in 1941/42. The swing of the «temperature pendulum» indicates that a harsh winter with heavy snowfalls and avalanches with catastrophic consequences may occur on the background of winters with mild and moderate avalanche danger. This is one of probable scenarios in the development of avalanche activity in the Greater Caucasus in the context of the current climate change.","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84037477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Вook review R. Barry and E. Hall-McKim «Polar environments and global change»","authors":"A. Glazovsky","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-437","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76966070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Influence of sea surface temperature in the tropics on the Antarctic sea ice under global warming","authors":"G. Alekseev, Anastasiia Vyazilova, A. Smirnov","doi":"10.15356/2076-67342019-2-412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-67342019-2-412","url":null,"abstract":"Sea ice fields in the Antarctic, in contrast to the Arctic ones, did not show a reduction in observed global warming, whereas the global climate models indicate its certain decrease. The purpose of the study is to explain this climatic phenomenon on the basis of the idea of joint dynamics of oceanic structures in the Southern Ocean – the Antarctic polar front and the margin of the maximum distribution of sea ice. We used data from the ERA/Interim and HadISST as well as the database on the sea ice for 1979–2017. Relationship between the SST-anomalies in low latitudes of the Northern hemisphere and positions of the Antarctic polar front and maximum sea-ice extent was investigated. It was found that locations of these structures changed under the influence of the SST anomalies in low latitudes. The results obtained confirm existence of the opposite trends in changes in the sea ice extent in the Arctic and Antarctic under the influence of the SST anomalies in the central North Atlantic Ocean. When positive, the anomalies cause a shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the Hadley circulation to the North, while, on the contrary, the negative anomaly promotes the corresponding shift of the Antarctic polar front, followed by the boundary of sea ice.","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66931668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
О. M. Makarieva, A. Shikhov, A. Ostashov, N. Nesterova
{"title":"Icings of the Indigirka river basin according to the recent Landsat satellite images and historical data","authors":"О. M. Makarieva, A. Shikhov, A. Ostashov, N. Nesterova","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-388","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents methods and results of creation of the digital catalogue of aufeises for the Indigirka river basin made on the basis of Landsat images and historical data. The region under study is the basin before the hydrometric section of GMS Vorontsovo, its area is about 305 000 km2. Historical data were taken from the Inventory of naleds of the North-East of the USSR territory published in 1958 and topographic maps. It includes the estimated coordinates and characteristics of 897 aufeises with total area of 2064 km2. The Landsatbased identification of aufeises for 2013–2017 allowed making description of 1213 aufeises over a total area of 1287 km2. The integrated digital catalogue of the aufeises for the Indigirka river basin based on combination of the above two sources is available at https://issues.pangaea.de/browse/PDI-17699. 10% of the largest aufeises make up about 60% of the total area of all aufeises according to both sources. The largest number of aufeises is at altitudes of 900–1300 m. The interannual variability of area of the aufeises for the period 2001-2016 was estimated by the example of the Bolshaya Momskaya naled and the group of large aufeises in the basin of the Syuryukty River which is the left tributary of the Indigirka. The conclusions cannot be considered unambiguous due to certain limitations of the imagery data but the results of the analysis is indicative of a tendency to decreasing in the area of the Bolshaya Momskaya naled in recent years, while no reduction in the aufeis area is noted in the basin of the Syuryukty River. The main results of this work are the new geodatabase of the aufeises in the Indigirka river basin, and also the comparison of the satellite observations with historical data performed for two major naleds. It is established that the satellite-estimated total area of aufeises is 1.6 times less than in the Cadastre (1958). At the same time, it was found that more than 600 aufeises recognized by the Landsat images were absent in the Cadastre of 1958. This may suggest that either the Cadastre data is incomplete or that conditions of the aufeis can be significantly changed over the past 50 years.","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87513190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Y. Macheret, A. Glazovsky, I. Lavrentiev, I. O. Marchuk
{"title":"Distribution of cold and temperate ice in glaciers on the Nordenskiold Land, Spitsbergen, from ground-based radio-echo sounding","authors":"Y. Macheret, A. Glazovsky, I. Lavrentiev, I. O. Marchuk","doi":"10.15356/20766734-2019-2-430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/20766734-2019-2-430","url":null,"abstract":"Data of ground-based radio-echo sounding of 16 glaciers located on the Nordenskiold Land, Spitsbergen, carried out in springs of 1999, 2007 and 2010–2013, allowed defining five glaciers as of the cold thermal type while other eleven ones were polythermal glaciers. In the last ones (polythermal) the average thickness of the upper layer of cold ice and the bottom layer of temperate ice was equal to 11-66 m and 15-96 m, respectively. The ratio of these thicknesses varies from 0.32 to 2.28, and the volume fraction of temperate ice in the total volume of the glaciers varies from 1 to 74% and changes from 0 to 50% in the ablation zone up to 80% in the accumulation zone. Thickness of cold ice was determined by measured delay time of radar reflections from cold-temperate surface (CTS) while thickness of temperate ice was derived as a difference between the total thickness of the glacier and the thickness of its cold ice. For interpretation of radar reflections from CTS we used the noticeable distinction in character of the radar reflections from the upper and lower thicknesses of glacier: absence of internal reflections (excluding reflections from buried crevasses and glacier wells) from upper cold ice layer and a great number of reflections of hyperbolic form from the lower layer related to strong scattering of radio waves by water inclusions in the temperate ice. According to the measurements, relative power of the radar reflections from CTS is by 5,5–14,2 dB smaller than those from the bedrock, that can be considered as an indicator of smaller water content at CTS; so, the repeated measurements of their relative power can be used for estimation of temporal changes in the water content at these boundaries. In layers of the temperate ice, the series of vertical hyperbolic reflections penetrating the cold ice down to CTS and further to the bedrock were detected. Such reflections are related to buried crevasses and/or the glacier wells and can serve as sources of the water permeating during the melt periods from the glacier surface down to CTS and bedrock and, thus, influencing on the ice viscosity and fluidity as well as on velocity of the bottom sliding in the polythermal glaciers. Repeated measurements of relative power of reflections from buried crevasses and wells can also be used to study processes of freezing them through and emptying during the period before start of the surface melting. Relation between volume of temperate ice and area of 16 studied glaciers was used to estimate the probability of existence of polythermal glaciers with a temperate ice core in all 202 glaciers in the Nordenskiold Land. 72 glaciers with areas exceeding 1.79 km2 may be referred to the polythermal type. The probable total volume of temperate ice in these glaciers amounts roughly to 10 km3, and with the 95% confidence it is within the interval from 8 to 33 km3. Almost 80% of the whole temperate ice may be concentrated in only five glaciers with area more than 17 km2, ","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73748809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Influence of the snow–soil contact conditions on the depth of ground freezing (based on observations in the Kursk region)","authors":"V. Kotlyakov, A. V. Sosnovsky, R. Chernov","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-2-407","url":null,"abstract":"The results of measurements of the ground freezing under a snow cover do not always agree with the calculations. The reason for this may be variability of thermal characteristics of the snow cover which properties depend on the landscape features. One of probable reasons may be also the incomplete contact between the snow cover and the soil. In autumn, the ground surface is usually covered with fallen leaves or withered grass. Estimates show that, in the presence of such layer on the soil surface, the air gap between snow and soil with the 1 cm thickness has a thermal protection capacity equal to the value of a 10‑centimeter thick layer of snow. Sometimes the presence of local gaps in the snow-soil interface can also be caused by other reason, for example, the spontaneous downfall of a depth hoar layer. The results of field measurements of snow cover characteristics, ground freezing depths and investigation of the contact conditions at the snow-soil interface carried out in different landscapes are presented. The results of mathematical modeling showed that when the air gap between snow and soil is taken into account the calculated values of depth of ground freezing are in a good agreement with data of the measurements. This consideration is especially important for small thicknesses of snow cover with high density and thermal conductivity. Numerical experiments did also show that the snow hardness is the necessary characteristic for analysis of the snow cover state. This provides more accurate estimating of the snow thermal conductivity that is closely connected with its hardness.","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84669905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Probes for the study of icy and subglacial environment of planets","authors":"A. V. Zelenchuk, V. Krylenkov","doi":"10.15356/2076-6734-2019-1-123-134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2019-1-123-134","url":null,"abstract":"The article proposes a technology for increasing the thermic ice drilling rate under the influence of hydraulic force generated by the probe (or cryobot), which increases the coefficient of conversion of thermal energy into the energy of ice melting and allows increasing the power of thermal head of the probe. A single-wire Tesla system is proposed to use for the probe power supply, which makes it possible to reduce the volume of the cable and losses of transmitted energy. The method of the probe self-lifting to the ice surface without using the hydraulic force (traction), i.e. without a load on the cable, is proposed. To study thick (up to 5 km) ice sheets and subglacial water environments on the Earth, as well as the ice cover (up to 30 km thick) and the subglacial ocean of the Europe (the Jupiter’s satellite), conceptual principal designs of the probe (or cryobot) have been developed on the basis of thermic-hydraulic drilling (THD). Implementation of the THD‑cryobot designs will allow organizing systemic studies of glaciers and subglacial water environments on the Earth and other planets, not disturbing their ice isolation with multiple savings of financial and technical means, energy and time. ","PeriodicalId":43880,"journal":{"name":"Led i Sneg-Ice and Snow","volume":"126 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87643258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}