The physical structures of snow and sea ice in the Arctic section of 150°-180°W were observed on the basis of snow-pit, ice-core, and drill-hole measurements from late July to late August 2010. Almost all th...The physical structures of snow and sea ice in the Arctic section of 150°-180°W were observed on the basis of snow-pit, ice-core, and drill-hole measurements from late July to late August 2010. Almost all the in- vestigated floes were first-year ice, except for one located north of Alaska, which was probably multi-year ice transported from north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago during early summer. The snow covers over all the investigated floes were in the melting phase, with temperatures approaching 0℃and densities of 295-398 kg/m3. The snow covers can be divided into two to five layers of different textures, with most cases having a top layer of fresh snow, a round-grain layer in the middle, and slush and/or thin icing layers at the bottom. The first-year sea ice contained about 7%-17% granular ice at the top. There was no granular ice in the lower layers. The interior melting and desalination of sea ice introduced strong stratifications of temper- ature, salinity, density, and gas and brine volume fractions. The sea ice temperature exhibited linear cooling with depth, while the salinity and the density increased linearly with normalized depth from 0.2 to 0.9 and from 0 to 0.65, respectively. The top layer, especially the freeboard layer, had the lowest salinity and density, and consequently the largest gas content and the smallest brine content. Both the salinity and density in the ice basal layer were highly scattered due to large differences in ice porosity among the samples. The bulk average sea ice temperature, salinity, density, and gas and brine volume fractions were -0.8℃, 1.8, 837 kg/m3, 9.3% and 10.4%, respectively. The snow cover, sea ice bottom, and sea ice interior show evidences of melting during mid-August in the investigated floe located at about 87°N, 175°W.展开更多
Accelerated decline of summer and winter Arctic sea ice has been demonstrated progressively. Melt ponds play a key role in enhancing the feedback of solar radiation in the ice/ocean-atmosphere system, and have thus be...Accelerated decline of summer and winter Arctic sea ice has been demonstrated progressively. Melt ponds play a key role in enhancing the feedback of solar radiation in the ice/ocean-atmosphere system, and have thus been a focus of researchers and modelers. A new melt pond investigation system was designed to determine morphologic and hydrologic features, and their evolution. This system consists of three major parts： Temperature-salinity measuring, surface morphology monitoring, and water depth monitoring units. The setup was deployed during the ice camp period of the fourth Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition in summer 2010. The evolution of a typical Arctic melt pond was documented in terms of pond depth, shape and surface condition. These datasets are presented to scientifically reveal how involved parameters change, contributing to better understanding of the evolution mechanism of the melt pond. The main advantage of this system is its suitability for autonomous and long-term observation, over and within a melt pond. Further, the setup is portable and robust. It can be easily and quickly installed, which is most valuable for deployment under harsh conditions.展开更多
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 40930848,41106160 and 41176080the State Oceanic Administration of China under contract No.2012240
文摘The physical structures of snow and sea ice in the Arctic section of 150°-180°W were observed on the basis of snow-pit, ice-core, and drill-hole measurements from late July to late August 2010. Almost all the in- vestigated floes were first-year ice, except for one located north of Alaska, which was probably multi-year ice transported from north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago during early summer. The snow covers over all the investigated floes were in the melting phase, with temperatures approaching 0℃and densities of 295-398 kg/m3. The snow covers can be divided into two to five layers of different textures, with most cases having a top layer of fresh snow, a round-grain layer in the middle, and slush and/or thin icing layers at the bottom. The first-year sea ice contained about 7%-17% granular ice at the top. There was no granular ice in the lower layers. The interior melting and desalination of sea ice introduced strong stratifications of temper- ature, salinity, density, and gas and brine volume fractions. The sea ice temperature exhibited linear cooling with depth, while the salinity and the density increased linearly with normalized depth from 0.2 to 0.9 and from 0 to 0.65, respectively. The top layer, especially the freeboard layer, had the lowest salinity and density, and consequently the largest gas content and the smallest brine content. Both the salinity and density in the ice basal layer were highly scattered due to large differences in ice porosity among the samples. The bulk average sea ice temperature, salinity, density, and gas and brine volume fractions were -0.8℃, 1.8, 837 kg/m3, 9.3% and 10.4%, respectively. The snow cover, sea ice bottom, and sea ice interior show evidences of melting during mid-August in the investigated floe located at about 87°N, 175°W.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 40930848,50921001 and 51079021)Norwegian research project AMORA,supported mainly by the Research Council of Norway (Grant no.193592/S30)the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, SOA.
文摘Accelerated decline of summer and winter Arctic sea ice has been demonstrated progressively. Melt ponds play a key role in enhancing the feedback of solar radiation in the ice/ocean-atmosphere system, and have thus been a focus of researchers and modelers. A new melt pond investigation system was designed to determine morphologic and hydrologic features, and their evolution. This system consists of three major parts： Temperature-salinity measuring, surface morphology monitoring, and water depth monitoring units. The setup was deployed during the ice camp period of the fourth Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition in summer 2010. The evolution of a typical Arctic melt pond was documented in terms of pond depth, shape and surface condition. These datasets are presented to scientifically reveal how involved parameters change, contributing to better understanding of the evolution mechanism of the melt pond. The main advantage of this system is its suitability for autonomous and long-term observation, over and within a melt pond. Further, the setup is portable and robust. It can be easily and quickly installed, which is most valuable for deployment under harsh conditions.
