Monitoring and Modelling Lake Ice in Canada

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Canada’s lakes are a dominant part of the landscape and experience ice cover in most regions of the country. Lake ice is sensitive to climate variability and changes occurring in lake ice regimes in recent years have been primarily noted through modelling and satellite data since the ground based observation network in Canada essentially ceased to exist by the late 1990s. Satellite imagery can be very useful for monitoring the timing of ice-on/off, however, it currently has limited use for determining ice thickness. Lake ice models present a suitable option for examining ice duration and thickness processes as well as climate influenced changes to the ice cover of lakes. Complicating both modelling and monitoring efforts are the spatial aspects of lakes. Ice cover may not form or decay uniformly across a lake surface, or across lakes in close proximity. This is due to the ice formation and decay being affected by the lake size and shape, as well as the overlying snow cover, which can result in spatially varying ice thickness.