Arctic Climate and Its Change from Space - Characteristics, Trends, Linkage to Global Climate Change

Arctic climate and its change has been triggering world-wide attention due to the unexpected rapid retreat of perennial ice cover in the Arctic Ocean and associated accelerated warming resulting from its unique climate characteristics and sensitivity to global climate change over the past two decades. Meteorological Satellites provide a new perspective of observing the earth-atmosphere system from space with wide spatial coverage and high temporal resolution, making them critical for an unprecedented detailed study of Arctic climate characteristics and its recent change. This book presents a systematic and unifying approach to the retrievals of climate products with satellite remote sensed data, and the statistical methods used to study Arctic climate and its change. The simultaneous examination of all the components of the Arctic climate system is essential in understanding climate variability and interactions of influential climate factors such as surface temperature and clouds. The logical presentation of satellite retrieval techniques, analysis methods, and diagrams and tables will prove valuable to researchers, scientists, and engineers working in the fields of the atmospheric, environmental, hydrologic, and biologic sciences.