Sonified  Annual  data  (smoothed)

Tip: Watch in full-screen mode.  Listen with headphones.

Albedo  choir.

In the sonifications below, annual averages from 1958-2012 have been smoothed, so that the values ramp gradually from one year to the next.  In this first example, the lower tones of a droning chord become increasingly accentuated as surface reflectivity decreases (darker, lower albedo values).  A greater range of frequencies at both ends of the spectrum is also progressively allowed to pass through hi & lo-pass filters as albedo values decline.  Low frequencies are equated with dark ice.

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ALbedo Choir   VS   Temperature  Filter

The effect representing annual air temperature values was created using a filter over a mix of washy ambient sounds & noise, and modulating reverb and harmonic exciter parameters.  Combined with the albedo choir.

ALbedo Choir   Vs   Melt Rate Geiger 

I created  a Geiger Counter type effect to represent annual summer melting averages.  Here it is presented along with the albedo choir.  The geiger counter gets more and more grating as it increases in intensity.  Our annoyance level when listening might translate into our alarm at the changes in the rates of melting on the ice sheet!

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albedo choir   vs   Melt rate Geiger   vs   Temperature  Filter

All three!  The melt rate geiger counter is panned left, the temperature swoosh is panned right, albedo darkly underlies all.  

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Same as before – all three variables sounding simultaneously.  To provide a comparison of how things have been trending, I skipped three of year of every four years and slowed down the rate of playback to aurally "zoom in" on every fourth year (ignore typo at start of video please).

ALbedo Choir   VS   Melt Rate   Geiger   vs   Temperature Filter -  Every 4 years

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