Ice thickness, growth and salinity in Van Mijenfjorden, Svalbard, Norway

Abstract

This paper describes measurements of ice conditions in the fjord Van Mijenfjorden, Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago, between 1998 and 2006. Ice thickness, ice temperatures and ice properties were measured, and simple simulations of oceanic flux were performed. The maximum annual peak ice thickness was measured in 2004: 1.3 m in the inner basin and 1.2 m in the outer basin. The minimum annual peak thickness was 0.72 m in the inner basin and no fast ice in the outer basin, in 2006. The estimated oceanic flux was about 2-5 W m -2 in the outer basin, and was close to zero in the inner basin. Flooding and brine drainage may have caused an overestimation of the oceanic flux. The measurements demonstrate different ice growth mechanisms, and the simplest model (Stefan's Law with air temperatures and a correction factor) fails to predict the ice growth. Finally, there is reason to believe that the ice conditions were heavier in the 1980s.

Seasonal and interannual variability of sea-ice state variables: Observations and predictions for landfast ice in northern Alaska and Svalbard

“…CC BY 4.0 License. on top of the sea ice (Høyland, 2009). Accordingly, the variability in ice thickness within a DD interval is much larger in Van Mijen Fjord than in Utqiaġvik.…”

“…We analyzed ice core data from two different locations, representative of a broader range of quiescent growth conditions of Arctic first-year sea ice: Utqiaġvik, located at the northern tip of Alaska and Van Mijen Fjord on the west coast of the Svalbard Archipelago, 60 km south of Longyearbyen. At each location, field measurements and ice sampling were part of sustained ice observation programs (Druckenmiller et al, 2009;Ervik et al, 2014;Høyland, 2009). In this study, we consider data collected during the ice seasons from 85 1997/98 through 2017/18.…”

“…CC BY 4.0 License. Mijen Fjord during the winter 1998/99 through /05, and in 2006/07, 2013/14 (Ervik et al, 2014Høyland, 2009;Høyland et al, 2020) and 2016. An island partially blocks the mouth of the fjord and currents are mostly dominated by tides.…”

“…An island partially blocks the mouth of the fjord and currents are mostly dominated by tides. In addition, glacial freshwater input from the surrounding mountains lowers the salinity of the fjord water (Høyland, 2009). Located on the west coast of Svalbard Archipelago, warm Atlantic water from 110 the West Spitsbergen Current also influences ice growth conditions in Van Mijen Fjord (Gerland & Hall, 2006).…”

“…The fjord is often divided into an outer and inner basin (Kangas, 2000). Høyland (2009) observed an ice thickness difference of 115 0.1 m between the two regions in 2004 and attributed the thinner ice in the outer basin to a later freeze-up and higher ocean heat flux. While the exact location of coring sites varies between sampling events and from year to year, for the purpose of this study we aggregated all ice cores into a dataset representative of the area.…”