Pan-Arctic River Discharge Database (R-ArcticNET 3.0)

R-ArcticNET Version 3.0 is a comprehensive World-Wide Web-based regional hydrometeorological data bank with time series of river discharge data from 3,713 gauges covering the entire pan-Arctic drainage region. The pan-Arctic drainage region is defined as the entire land area draining into the Arctic Ocean as well as Hudson Bay, James Bay, and the Northern Bering Strait which includes the Yukon and Anadyr Rivers. The data bank is based on actual long-term mean annual discharge for the period of record where gauging data exists and on water balance models where records do not exist.

R-ArcticNET Version 3.0 discharge data are used to improve the calibration and to validate the water balance and routing models for the arctic regime which is dominated by snowmelt and soil water thaw during the relatively short summer season. A validated model will provide the basis for predicting monthly runoff from all arctic rivers to the Arctic Ocean under conditions predicted by climate and land surface models for future decades. These are among the model outputs required for prediction of Arctic Ocean stratification and circulation over the coming decades when climate and the arctic ecosystem are expected to be very different from today in response to global warming. The data are also important to the Arctic scientific community given the potential sensitivity of Arctic Sea Ice formation to inputs from the terrestrial land surface.

R-ArcticNET Version 3.0 involves a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach to the estimation of freshwater export via rivers to the arctic coastal seas. Watershed water balances and annual variability in river discharge from 1960 to present are being assessed. Water balance and river routing models are being combined with river water nutrient chemistry data to develop statistically-based models of the fluxes of nutrients from watersheds to the Arctic Ocean. The product provides baseline estimates of contemporary water and nutrient fluxes from land to water for the entire pan-arctic drainage.

The website for R-ArcticNET 3.0 is at [http://www.R-ArcticNET.sr.unh.edu]. The data for R-ArcticNET 2.0 are also available on CD-ROM from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The data from Environment Canada has the following copyright: All data provided by Environment Canada is copyright and its use is restricted to non-commercial education and research purposes. Resale of this data is prohibited. Any user of this data is required to give full credit to Environment Canada as the source of the Canadian data. This includes any research leading to a publication.