1. The State of Arctic Sea Ice Gary Hufford, NOAA/NWS Alaska Region Lawson Brigham, Executive Director Arctic Research Commission

8. Comments on Sea Ice in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and Future Needs for Coastal Alaska PRIDE Alaska Coastal Climatologies Wind/Wave Workshop Anchorage, Alaska 2 - 3 August 2005 Lawson Brigham Deputy Director, U.S. Arctic Research Commission usarc@acsalaska.net

9. Sea Ice Observational data show Observational data show a decrease of coverage a decrease of coverage Decrease is largest in largest in summer summer Decrease is Decrease is largest since largest since late 1980s late 1980s Sea Ice Extent (million km 2 ) 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Sea Ice Extent (million km 2 )

10. 16 September 2002

11. 16 September 2003

12. 16 September 2004

13. 16 September 2002 16 September 2003 16 September 2004

14. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Climate model projections of sea ice extent: 2000 - 2100 2000 - 2100 MarchSeptember MARSEPT

15. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

16. ‘Arctic Sea Ice Atlas of the Future’ Projected Ice Extent – Hadley Model

17. Sea Ice in Alaska’s Coastal Seas 23 June 2005 – Established working group Represented – USARC, AOOS, NWS (Anchorage), UAF, NIC, NSIDC, PMEL, USFWS, CRREL, UW/APL Issue – Lack of long-term, robust sea ice data set for Alaska’s coastal seas Needs - Arctic Climate Impact Assessment - Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment - Integrated Bering Sea Ecosystem Research - Many Stakeholders

18. Examples of Ongoing Sea Ice Work NWS – Regional sea ice charts NIC – Global charts; George Mason U. digitizing for usable database NSIDC – W. Dehn collection ~ 7000 charts (1953 – 1986) PMEL – SAR data analysis CRREL – Range of research UAA/MMS – Sea ice atlas UAF – Spring leads/landfast; energy + mass balance; HF radar; ice thickness by airborne sensing UW/APL – Fast ice; range of research