A year/long ice camp centered around a Canadian icebreaker frozen in the arctic ice pack successfully collected a wealth of atmospheric, oceanographic, and cryospheric data.

Turbulence data from three Arctic drift station experiments demonstrate features of turbulent heat transfer in the oceanic boundary layer. Time series analysis of several w′T′ records shows that heat and momentum flux occur at nearly the same scales, typically by turbulent eddies of the order of 10–20 m in horizontal extent and a few meters in vertical extent. Probability distribution functions of w′T′ have large skewness and kurtosis, where the latter confirms that most of the flux occurs in intermittent “events” with positive and negative excursions an order of magnitude larger than the mean value. An estimate of the eddy heat diffusivity in the outer (Ekman) part of the boundary layer, based on measured heat flux and temperature gradient during a diurnal tidal cycle over the Yermak Plateau slope north of Fram Strait, agrees reasonably well with the eddy viscosity, with values as high as 0.15 m2 s−1. An analysis of measurements made near the ice‐ocean interface at the three stations shows that heat flux increases with both temperature elevation above freezing and with friction velocity at the interface. It also reveals a surprising uniformity in parameters describing the heat and mass transfer: e.g., the thickness of the “transition sublayer” (from a modified version of the Yaglom‐Kader theory) is about 10 cm at all three sites, despite nearly a fivefold difference in the under‐ice roughness z0, which ranges from approximately 2 to 9 cm. A much simplified model for heat and mass transfer at the ice‐ocean interface, suggested by the relative uniformity of the heat transfer coefficients at the three sites, is outlined.

Data from the 1975 Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX) are used to examine energy exchange between the Arctic mixed layer and the ice pack. Conductivity‐temperature‐depth profiles from four drifting stations reveal significant heat storage in the upper 50 m of the water column during summer, with mixed layer temperature elevation above freezing δT reaching as high as 0.4°C. Combining δT with turbulent friction velocity obtained from local ice motion provides an estimate of heat flux from the ocean to the ice Fw which was found to be strongly seasonal, with maximum values reaching 40–60 W m−2 in August. The annual average value of Fw was 5.1 W m−2, about half again as large as oceanic heat flux inferred from bottom ablation measurements in undeformed ice at the central station. Solar heat input to the upper ocean through open leads and thin ice, estimated using an ice thickness distribution model, totaled about 150 MJ m−2, in general agreement with integrated values of Fw. Results indicate that oceanic heat flux to the ice in the central Arctic is derived mainly from shortwave radiation entering the ocean through the ice pack, rather than from diffusion of warm water from below. Indeed, during the AIDJEX project the mixed layer appears to have contributed 15–20 MJ m−2 of heat to the upper pycnocline. During the summer, Fw was found to vary by as much as 10–30 W m−2 over separations of 100 to 200 km and thus represents an important term in the surface heat budget not controlled by purely local deformation and thermodynamics.

Measurements were made of the ice/upper ocean system in the marginal ice zone of the Greenland Sea during a 4-day storm in which wind blew the ice south across a frontal region, coinciding with the ice edge that had existed when the storm began. In response to wind stress of about 0.2 Pa, a turbulent boundary layer developed under the ice that exhibited marked Ekman rotation in both mean velocity (average surface speed about 0.17 m s-•, deflection angle about 33 ø) and turbulent stress profiles (typical Reynolds stress about 0.1 Pa). Ablation of the ice undersurface increased rapidly after crossing the surface temperature front, and the observed melt rate corresponded with direct heat flux measurements in the oceanic boundary layer, with maximum upward heat flux of about 200 W m-2. We discuss overall momentum and energy balances, interpret observed boundary layer measurements with a numerical model, and show that molecular effects are important for heat and mass transport at the hydraulically rough ice-ocean interface. We also develop a simple model for predicting ice melt from interfacial stress and temperature and salinity of the mixed layer.

The dramatic reduction in minimum Arctic sea ice extent in recent years has been accompanied by surprising changes in the thermohaline structure of the Arctic Ocean, with potentially important impact on convection in the North Atlantic and the meridional overturning circulation of the world ocean. Extensive aerial hydrographic surveys carried out in March–April, 2008, indicate major shifts in the amount and distribution of fresh‐water content (FWC) when compared with winter climatological values, including substantial freshening on the Pacific side of the Lomonosov Ridge. Measurements in the Canada and Makarov Basins suggest that total FWC there has increased by as much as 8,500 cubic kilometers in the area surveyed, effecting significant changes in the sea‐surface dynamic topography, with an increase of about 75% in steric level difference from the Canada to Eurasian Basins, and a major shift in both surface geostrophic currents and freshwater transport in the Beaufort Gyre.

[1] A model is presented that describes the simultaneous growth and ablation of a layer of ice between an under-ice melt pond and the underlying ocean. Such ''false bottoms'' are the only significant source of ice formation in the Arctic during summer. Analytical solutions for diffusional transport of heat and salt are calculated that illustrate the importance of salt transport in effecting phase change. The model is extended to account for turbulent transports and applied to make predictions of bottom ablation rates of sea ice given the far-field properties of the ocean from the AIDJEX and SHEBA field experiments. The model predictions show that false bottoms may play a significant role in the summer heat budget of the ice-ocean system, causing localized heat fluxes of more than 10 W m À2 into the mixed layer. The thickening of thin ice by false-bottom formation leads to longer-lasting sea ice and thus smaller ice-free areas, which might be an important mechanism affecting the surface albedo.

Research involving a yearlong drift with the ice pack in the Arctic Ocean witnessed surprisingly thin ice at the start and even thinner ice at the end. Also, the extent of open water during the summer of 1998 in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas was the greatest of the past 2 decades. As the ice is melting from under your feet there is an understandable tendency to blame global warming. But the project, known as the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA), though motivated by climate change, was not designed to detect global warming. Definitive climate change pronouncements can not be made based on a single experiment.

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