Hydraulic controls of summer Arctic pack ice albedo

Eicken, Hajo; Grenfell, Thomas C.; Perovich, D. K.; Richter-Menge, J.; Frey, Karoline

doi:10.1029/2003jc001989

Cited by 231 publications

(336 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Lateral meltwater transport and surface topography play large roles in the extent of ponding on different ice types [Fetterer and Untersteiner, 1998;Eicken et al, 2002Eicken et al, , 2004Polashenski et al, 2012], but little is known about their roles in the timing of melt pond formation. Lateral meltwater transport is topography driven, Figure 9.…”

Section: Influence Of Meltwater Transport and Surface Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The elevation grid was aligned with multiyear and deformed and undeformed firstyear ice type masks. Following Eicken et al [2004], surface roughness was determined using the standard deviation of surface elevation in each ice type's area.…”

Section: 1002/2015jc011030mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our current understanding of seasonal melt pond evolution comes from studies of first-year landfast and drifting multiyear sea ice where long-term field measurements have been logistically feasible [Yackel et al, 2000;Perovich et al, 2001Perovich et al, , 2002aPerovich et al, , 2002bEicken et al, 2004;Polashenski et al, 2012]. The dynamic and thermodynamic processes of landfast ice differ from drifting ice due to the effects of shallow bathymetry [Rheimnitz et al, 1978;Mahoney et al, 2007], tides, and nearshore currents [George et al, 2004;Petrich et al, 2012b], a fixed orientation to the sun, and perhaps most importantly, warm air and dust from nearby land .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The low permeability of multiyear ice helps retain meltwater on its surface. Although meltwater transport dominates the early stages of melt pond formation Polashenski et al, 2012], the lateral spread in pond area itself is limited by the hummocky surface of multiyear ice, with maximum pond fractions being 30% [Untersteiner, 1986;Fetterer and Untersteiner, 1998;Perovich et al, 2002aPerovich et al, , 2002bEicken et al, 2004]. Comparatively, first-year sea ice has high permeability and low surface relief [Untersteiner, 1986].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Comparatively, first-year sea ice has high permeability and low surface relief [Untersteiner, 1986]. Low surface relief allows meltwater to spread laterally on the ice surface, resulting in larger areal melt pond fractions [Yackel et al, 2000;Eicken et al, 2004;Polashenski et al, 2012]. Especially evident on undeformed first-year ice, the lateral spread of meltwater can cause maximum pond fractions as high as 70% due to the low surface topography of snow drift bed forms [Scharien and Yackel, 2005;Petrich et al, 2012a;Polashenski et al, 2012].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

et al. 2015

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The seasonal evolution of melt ponds has been well documented on multiyear and landfast first‐year sea ice, but is critically lacking on drifting, first‐year sea ice, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Arctic. Using 1 m resolution panchromatic satellite imagery paired with airborne and in situ data, we evaluated melt pond evolution for an entire melt season on drifting first‐year and multiyear sea ice near the 2011 Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station (APLIS) site in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. A new algorithm was developed to classify the imagery into sea ice, thin ice, melt pond, and open water classes on two contrasting ice types: first‐year and multiyear sea ice. Surprisingly, melt ponds formed ∼3 weeks earlier on multiyear ice. Both ice types had comparable mean snow depths, but multiyear ice had 0–5 cm deep snow covering ∼37% of its surveyed area, which may have facilitated earlier melt due to its low surface albedo compared to thicker snow. Maximum pond fractions were 53 ± 3% and 38 ± 3% on first‐year and multiyear ice, respectively. APLIS pond fractions were compared with those from the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) field campaign. APLIS exhibited earlier melt and double the maximum pond fraction, which was in part due to the greater presence of thin snow and first‐year ice at APLIS. These results reveal considerable differences in pond formation between ice types, and underscore the importance of snow depth distributions in the timing and progression of melt pond formation.

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Section: Influence Of Meltwater Transport and Surface Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 1002/2015jc011030mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

et al. 2015

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A physically based parameterization of gravity drainage for sea‐ice modeling

Jones

Worster

2014

JGR Oceans

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We incorporate a physically derived parameterization of gravity drainage, in terms of a convective upwelling velocity, into a one-dimensional, thermodynamic sea-ice model of the kind currently used in coupled climate models. Our parameterization uses a local Rayleigh number to represent the important feedback between ice salinity, porosity, permeability, and desalination rate. It allows us to determine salt fluxes from sea ice and the corresponding evolution of the bulk salinity of the ice, in contrast to older, established models that prescribe the ice salinity. This improves the predictive power of climate models in terms of buoyancy fluxes to the polar oceans, and also the thermal properties of sea ice, which depend on its salinity. We analyze the behavior of existing fixed-salinity models, elucidate the physics by which changing salinity affects ice growth and compare against our dynamic-salinity model, both in terms of laboratory experiments and also deep-ocean calculations. These comparisons explain why the direct effect of ice salinity on growth is relatively small (though not always negligible, and sometimes different from previous studies), and also highlight substantial differences in the qualitative pattern and quantitative magnitude of salt fluxes into the polar oceans. Our study is particularly relevant to growing first-year ice, when gravity drainage is the dominant mechanism by which ice desalinates. We expect that our dynamic model, which respects the underlying physics of brine drainage, should be more robust to changes in polar climate and more responsive to rapid changes in oceanic and atmospheric forcing.

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Implications of fractured Arctic perennial ice cover on thermodynamic and dynamic sea ice processes

Asplin

Scharien

Else

et al. 2014

J. Geophys. Res. Oceans

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Decline of the Arctic summer minimum sea ice extent is characterized by large expanses of open water in the Siberian, Laptev, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas, and introduces large fetch distances in the Arctic Ocean. Long waves can propagate deep into the pack ice, thereby causing flexural swell and failure of the sea ice. This process shifts the floe size diameter distribution smaller, increases floe surface area, and thereby affects sea ice dynamic and thermodynamic processes. The results of Radarsat-2 imagery analysis show that a flexural fracture event which occurred in the Beaufort Sea region on 6 September 2009 affected $40,000 km 2 . Open water fractional area in the area affected initially decreased from 3.7% to 2.7%, but later increased to $20% following wind-forced divergence of the ice pack. Energy available for lateral melting was assessed by estimating the change in energy entrainment from longwave and shortwave radiation in the mixed-layer of the ocean following flexural fracture. 11.54 MJ m 22 of additional energy for lateral melting of ice floes was identified in affected areas. The impact of this process in future Arctic sea ice melt seasons was assessed using estimations of earlier occurrences of fracture during the melt season, and is discussed in context with ocean heat fluxes, atmospheric mixing of the ocean mixed layer, and declining sea ice cover. We conclude that this process is an important positive feedback to Arctic sea ice loss, and timing of initiation is critical in how it affects sea ice thermodynamic and dynamic processes.

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Hydraulic controls of summer Arctic pack ice albedo

Cited by 231 publications

References 40 publications

Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Seasonal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

A physically based parameterization of gravity drainage for sea‐ice modeling

Implications of fractured Arctic perennial ice cover on thermodynamic and dynamic sea ice processes

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