Assessment of the correlation between river discharge and sea ice growing in Laptev sea

Abstract

During the last 3 decades, the Arctic rivers have increased its discharge around10% mainly due the increase of temperature (Rawlins et al., 2010). The larger river discharge carries higher loads of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and suspended matter (SM) entering the Arctic Ocean. These results in increased absorption of solar energy inthe mixed layer potentially contributing to the general sea ice retreat (Soppa et al. 2019). Bauch et al., 2013 observed a correlation between river water discharge and local sea ice melting on the Laptev sea shelf, based on in-situ measurements, due to the change on the heat. New Arctic sea surface salinity products obtained from the ESA satellite SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) have been improved considerable thanks to the ESA funded project Arctic+ Salinity. The maps have better accuracy and resolution so the salinity fronts are better resolved. These improved maps will permit for the first time to study scientific processes that have never been described up to now with satellite data. We will explore if a correlation between the Lena and Ob rivers discharge with the sea ice melting and freeze up is observed with satellite data, manly with the 9 years of SMOS data. Salinity and sea ice thickness maps from SMOS and sea ice concentration from AMSR2 satellite will be used in this study