Tilbake til søkeresultatene

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

The process of snow-ice formation and its impact on young Arctic sea ice, RiS-ID 10915

Tildelt: kr 44 146

The Arctic region is experiencing a change from thick multiyear to much younger and thinner sea ice. In many places, increasing precipitation is leading to higher snow loads on young sea ice. Hence seawater can infiltrate the snow layer through pathways in the ice or from the side. Consequently parts of the snow layer may form a slushy layer that can freeze and form so called "snow ice". Snow ice is already known to play an important role in sea-ice formation in Antarctica. Recent studies [eg. RIS-ID 6916 "Norwegian young sea ice cruise (N-ICE2015)"] show a growing importance of snow ice for the Arctic, too. Involved processes may have substantial impacts on sea-ice and snow evolution but are still only crudely represented in coupled sea-ice models. In this context the proposed study will concentrate on the following objectives: 1. Salinity harps [e.g. RiS-ID 10429] and temperature sensors will be installed on sea ice in Van Mijenfjorden for one month to investigate the evolution of snow-ice formation in high temporal and spatial resolution with respect to impacts on underlying sea ice and the snow cover. 2. In addition snow depth and density, sea-ice thickness, permeability and freeboard will be captured manually to evaluate obtained salinity and temperature time series. As part of my master thesis I will establish a set of unique measurement methods to investigate thermodynamics, temperature evolution and salt rejection during snow-ice formation. Results are expected to highlight the importance of snow ice to be involved in today's understanding of the Arctic ice cover and will provide a foundation to improve sea-ice modelling.

Budsjettformål:

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum