Snow Melt and Algal Growth on Antarctic Peninsula: Effect Of Temperature Anomaly

Abstract:

Antarctica is melting due to extreme variability of temperature (1ºC to 18.3ºC) and precipitation. Impact of climate change in Antarctica is being reported in the form of rapid snowmelt and red-pigmented algal growth in snow (blood snow) during February 2020 (summer). The snow reflects less sunlight due to algal growth and melts faster. As a consequence, the algae can spread more leading to more warming. Present study is an attempt to estimate the area of snow melt in Eagle Island and change in snow reflectance due to algal growth near Antarctica's Vernadsky research base during February 2020. Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data with a 30m spatial resolution is used to quantify the area of snowmelt, melt ponds and snow reflectance. Results indicate that nearly 21.37% of snow cover area (SCA) has been melted as on 13th February, 2020 compared to snow cover area on 4th February, 2020 (9 days interval) forming melt ponds of 2.13 sq.km area. Algal growth has resulted in reduced snow reflectance in visible bands of electromagnetic spectrum leading to reduced albedo and increased warming. This study based on satellite data availability and prior knowledge of temperature anomaly correlates snow melt with rise in temperature.