A Novel and Low-Cost Sea Ice Mass Balance Buoy

Abstract

The understanding of sea ice mass balance processes requires continuous monitoring of the seasonal evolution of the ice thickness. While autonomous ice mass balance (IMB) buoys deployed over the past two decades have contributed to scientists' understanding of ice growth and decay processes, deployment has been limited, in part, by the cost of such systems. Routine, basinwide monitoring of the ice cover is realistically achievable through a network of reliable and affordable autonomous instrumentation. This paper describes the development of a novel autonomous platform and sensor that replaces the traditional thermistor strings for monitoring temperature profiles in the ice and snow using a chain of inexpensive digital temperature chip sensors linked by a single-wire data bus. By incorporating a heating element into each sensor, the instrument is capable of resolving material interfaces (e.g., air-snow and ice-ocean boundaries) even under isothermal conditions. The instrument is small, low cost, and easy to deploy. Field and laboratory tests of the sensor chain demonstrate that the technology can reliably resolve material boundaries to within a few centimeters. The discrimination between different media based on sensor thermal response is weak in some deployments and efforts to optimize the performance continue.

Ice and ocean velocity in the Arctic marginal ice zone: Ice roughness and momentum transfer

“…Each cluster of instruments contained 5 IMB systems (Scottish Association for Marine Sciences (SAMS) IMBs; Jackson et al, 2013), with the central IMB co-located with the AWS, ITP-V and AOFB, and the other four forming a 5-km square around the cluster (Figure 2c). IMBs stopped telemetering and melted out of the ice in late August to early September when minimum measured ice drafts of 0.1-0.5 m depth were reported (Figure 4b).…”

Evolution of snow and ice temperature, thickness and energy balance in Lake Orajärvi, northern Finland

“…Additionally, the solar heating may cause errors in the readings of the uppermost temperature sensors during the melting season. Although the SIMB is still largely a prototype system for snow and ice monitoring (Jackson et al, 2013), its relatively low cost and compact design make this device competitive. We have also successfully deployed SIMB buoys for snow and ice monitoring also on sea ice in the Arctic, Antarctic, and the Baltic Sea.…”

“…The snow/ice interface location can be estimated by investigating the temperature perturbations due to the sensor heating. In air, the heating cycles lead typically to a temperature rise of 28C, in ice and water the typical value is about 0.28C at least (Jackson et al, 2013). Additionally, since the heat conductivities of snow and ice are different, the temperature gradients in snow and ice are expected to be different.…”

Augmenting Inuit knowledge for safe sea-ice travel — The SmartICE information system

“…Thermistor chains are a relatively cheap technology that has been used in a number of other sea-ice thickness devices, with the additional benefit of providing temperature measurements [10,11]. The thermistor chain will measure a seawater-seaice-snow-air temperature profile, from which sea-ice thickness can be derived.…”

“…For example, when the temperature gradient is weak between the top of the ice and the atmosphere/snow, it becomes problematic to determine where is the ice boundary and hence the ice thickness [11]. Experiments with other sensor technologies, specifically electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, ultrasound and optical attenuation, are being initiated.…”