During the last five decades, springtime snow and the ice cover in the Arctic has significantly declined. As per a new research, the snow has reduced by a third in the Western Hemisphere and by almost a half near Alaska.

Researchers from NASA and the University of Washington, Seattle have assessed changes in the snow depth over years.

To evaluate these changes, researchers gathered data from different sources including NASA's Bromide, Ozone, and Mercury Experiment (BROMEX) field campaign, NASA's Operation IceBridge flights and other resources from the 1950s through the 1990s.

Co-author of the study, Son Nghiem, said, "In this study, we had thousands of measurements of snow depth on sea ice to thoroughly validate NASA's aircraft observations. We knew Arctic sea ice was decreasing".

Researchers observed that since the Soviet period, the snow has reduced in thickness from 14 inches to 9 inches in the western Arctic and from 13 inches to 6 inches in the areas like Beaufort and Chukchi seas, north and west of Alaska.

Reason behind thinning of ice could be late freezing action of the sea surface. Nghiem termed the snow cover as a shield having capacity to insulate sea ice.

Researchers are yet to study the effect of thinner snow cover on sea ice. First author Melinda Webster added that the delayed freezing of sea surface could be the reason behind the way heat is passing in the Arctic. There are high chances that it in turn would be affecting precipitation patterns. This aspect needs to be researched further, stated Webster. The study has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.