Year: 2026
Type: data-paper
Abstract: Ice cover on the Great Lakes plays an important role in regional climate, supports tourism and recreation, and provides ecological habitat. As the climate warms, ice cover in the Great Lakes is expected to decline, which in turn will create more lake effect precipitation, reduce ice cover for recreation, and alter habitat for aquatic species. While it is important to understand the historical ice patterns to better understand past distributions of aquatic species and improve the accuracy of forecasts for future ice cover on the lakes, Great Lakes ice cover data prior to 1973 is scarce, due to the limited routine satellite observations. We used weather station data around the Great Lakes to compile daily air temperature, calculate cumulative freezing degree-days and net melting degree-days from 1897-2023, and develop raster layers estimating ice duration and variability spatially during the historical period from 1897-1960.
Source: Scientific Data
Authors: Katelyn King, Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, Cory Brant, Danielle Cohn, Inigo Peng, Karen Alofs
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,490
OpenAlex ID: W7125378440