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Figure 1: P<strong>an</strong>-Arctic l<strong>an</strong>d m<strong>as</strong>s (north of 45 ◦ N, dark gray), <strong>the</strong> arctic drainage b<strong>as</strong>in (light gray),<br />

<strong>an</strong>d locations of 179 river b<strong>as</strong>ins used in <strong>the</strong> study. Dot sizes are scaled by b<strong>as</strong>in area. A total of<br />

39,926 EASE-Grid cells comprise <strong>the</strong> approximately 25 million km 2 drainage b<strong>as</strong>in. Are<strong>as</strong> for <strong>the</strong><br />

179 river b<strong>as</strong>ins r<strong>an</strong>ge from 20,000 km 2 to 486,000 km 2 .<br />

respective <strong>the</strong> b<strong>as</strong>in.<br />

Satellite-borne remote sensing at microwave wavelengths c<strong>an</strong> be used to monitor l<strong>an</strong>dscape<br />

freeze/thaw state (Ulaby et al., 1986; Way et al., 1997; Frolking et al., 1999; Kimball et al., 2001).<br />

A step edge detection scheme applied to SSM/I brightness temperatures (McDonald et al., 2004)<br />

w<strong>as</strong> used to identify <strong>the</strong> predomin<strong>an</strong>t springtime thaw tr<strong>an</strong>sition event for each EASE-Grid cell.<br />

As with SWE, we derived a b<strong>as</strong>in average date of thaw by averaging thaw event dates across <strong>the</strong><br />

b<strong>as</strong>in grid cells. <strong>Snow</strong> thaw across arctic b<strong>as</strong>ins often c<strong>an</strong> occur over a period of weeks or months.<br />

Therefore, for large watersheds, our timing estimates derived from SSM/I brightness temperatrures<br />

must be interpreted with caution. None<strong>the</strong>less <strong>the</strong>y provide a general approximation of <strong>the</strong> timing<br />

in l<strong>an</strong>dscape thaw for use in estimating pre-melt SWE <strong>an</strong>d spring Q. As <strong>an</strong> illustration, monthly<br />

river discharge, SWE, <strong>an</strong>d thaw date for <strong>the</strong> Yukon b<strong>as</strong>in are shown in Figure 2a–d).<br />

A simulated topological network (Vörösmarty et al., 2000), recently implemented at 6 minute<br />

resolution, defines river b<strong>as</strong>ins over <strong>the</strong> approximately 25 million km 2 of <strong>the</strong> P<strong>an</strong>-Arctic b<strong>as</strong>in. The<br />

degree to which SWE <strong>an</strong>d Q covary over <strong>the</strong> period 1988-2000 is evaluated using <strong>the</strong> coefficient of<br />

determination, R 2 (squared correlation). Throughout our <strong>an</strong>alysis we <strong>as</strong>sume a signific<strong>an</strong>ce level<br />

of 0.05 (5%) <strong>as</strong> <strong>the</strong> cutoff to determine whe<strong>the</strong>r a given SWE vs. Q comparison is statistically<br />

signific<strong>an</strong>t, <strong>an</strong>d not due to ch<strong>an</strong>ce. For a sample size of 13 years this correspondes to R 2 ≥ 0.22.<br />

RESULTS<br />

Inter<strong>an</strong>nual variability in b<strong>as</strong>in averaged, pre-melt SWE is compared with spring Q for 179 b<strong>as</strong>ins<br />

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