Snow contribution to first‐year and second‐year Arctic sea ice mass balance north of Svalbard

Abstract

The salinity and water oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of 29 first‐year (FYI) and second‐year (SYI) Arctic sea ice cores (total length 32.0 m) from the drifting ice pack north of Svalbard were examined to quantify the contribution of snow to sea ice mass. Five cores (total length 6.4 m) were analyzed for their structural composition, showing variable contribution of 10–30% by granular ice. In these cores, snow had been entrained in 6–28% of the total ice thickness. We found evidence of snow contribution in about three quarters of the sea ice cores, when surface granular layers had very low δ18O values. Snow contributed 7.5–9.7% to sea ice mass balance on average (including also cores with no snow) based on δ18O mass balance calculations. In SYI cores, snow fraction by mass (12.7–16.3%) was much higher than in FYI cores (3.3–4.4%), while the bulk salinity of FYI (4.9) was distinctively higher than for SYI (2.7). We conclude that oxygen isotopes and salinity profiles can give information on the age of the ice and enables distinction between FYI and SYI (or older) ice in the area north of Svalbard.

Effects of sea‐ice and biogeochemical processes and storms on under‐ice water fCO2 during the winter‐spring transition in the high Arctic Ocean: Implications for sea‐air CO2 fluxes

“…The ice pack was composed primarily of young ice (YI) with little snow, first‐year ice (FYI) and second‐year ice (SYI) [ Granskog et al ., ], with thick snow (0.3–0.5 m) [ Rösel et al ., ]. In the region, modal ice thickness was about 1.3–1.5 m [ Rösel et al ., ].…”

Thin Sea Ice, Thick Snow, and Widespread Negative Freeboard Observed During N‐ICE2015 North of Svalbard

“…These characteristics control the wintertime growth rate of the underlying sea ice (Perovich, ). A thicker snow pack on relatively thin ice can become a positive contribution to the sea‐ice mass balance through snow‐ice formation (Granskog et al, ; Haas et al, ; Provost et al, ).…”

Algal Hot Spots in a Changing Arctic Ocean: Sea-Ice Ridges and the Snow-Ice Interface

“…However, if the ice had been previously flooded, nutrients from a different water mass could have been trapped in this layer. During the winter months of the N-ICE expedition, snow-ice formation was observed in February-March in ice floes of the same area and similar conditions (Granskog et al, 2017;Merkouriadi et al, 2017). Nutrient concentrations in the snow/slush sampled in March 2015 reached values up to 17 µM nitrate, 1 µM phosphate and 4 µM silicate.…”

“…In addition, in the Atlantic sector, the influence of an increasingly warm Atlantic water inflow will contribute to faster ice melt from below (Polyakov et al, 2017). Thus, the contribution of snow to seaice mass balance could increase (Granskog et al, 2017), with flooding events in early spring (Granskog et al, 2017;Provost et al, 2017). These conditions favor the accumulation of algae at the snow-ice interface.…”