Modelling the annual cycle of landfast ice near Zhongshan Station,East Antarctica

A high resolution one-dimensional thermodynamic snow and ice(HIGHTSI) model was used to model the annual cycle of landfast ice mass and heat balance near Zhongshan Station, East Antarctica. The model was forced and initialized by meteorological and sea ice in situ observations from April 2015 to April 2016. HIGHTSI produced a reasonable snow and ice evolution in the validation experiments, with a negligible mean ice thickness bias of(0.003±0.06) m compared to in situ observations. To further examine the impact of different snow conditions on annual evolution of first-year ice(FYI), four sensitivity experiments with different precipitation schemes(0, half, normal, and double) were performed. The results showed that compared to the snow-free case,the insulation effect of snow cover decreased bottom freezing in the winter, leading to 15%–26% reduction of maximum ice thickness. Thick snow cover caused negative freeboard and flooding, and then snow ice formation,which contributed 12%–49% to the maximum ice thickness. In early summer, snow cover delayed the onset of ice melting for about one month, while the melting of snow cover led to the formation of superimposed ice,accounting for 5%–10% of the ice thickness. Internal ice melting was a significant contributor in summer whether snow cover existed or not, accounting for 35%–56% of the total summer ice loss. The multi-year ice(MYI)simulations suggested that when snow-covered ice persisted from FYI to the 10 th MYI, winter congelation ice percentage decreased from 80% to 44%(snow ice and superimposed ice increased), while the contribution of internal ice melting in the summer decreased from 45% to 5%(bottom ice melting dominated).     

基于中国北极考察布放浮标观测和数值模拟的海冰和积雪厚度变化分析

Sea ice and the snow pack on top of it were investigated using Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition(CHINARE) buoy data.Two polar hydrometeorological drifters,known as Zeno? ice stations,were deployed during CHINARE 2003.A new type of high-resolution Snow and Ice Mass Balance Arrays,known as SIMBA buoys,were deployed during CHINARE 2014.Data from those buoys were applied to investigate the thickness of sea ice and snow in the CHINARE domain.A simple approach was applied to estimate the average snow thickness on the basis of Zeno~ temperature data.Snow and ice thicknesses were also derived from vertical temperature profile data based on the SIMBA buoys.A one-dimensional snow and ice thermodynamic model(HIGHTSI) was applied to calculate the snow and ice thickness along the buoy drift trajectories.The model forcing was based on forecasts and analyses of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF).The Zeno~ buoys drifted in a confined area during 2003–2004.The snow thickness modelled applying HIGHTSI was consistent with results based on Zeno~ buoy data.The SIMBA buoys drifted from 81.1°N,157.4°W to 73.5°N,134.9°W in 15 months during2014–2015.The total ice thickness increased from an initial August 2014 value of 1.97 m to a maximum value of2.45 m before the onset of snow melt in May 2015;the last observation was approximately 1 m in late November2015.The ice thickness based on HIGHTSI agreed with SIMBA measurements,in particular when the seasonal variation of oceanic heat flux was taken into account,but the modelled snow thickness differed from the observed one.Sea ice thickness derived from SIMBA data was reasonably good in cold conditions,but challenges remain in both snow and ice thickness in summer.     

北极地区不同冰龄的海冰厚度变化研究

In this study, changes in Arctic sea ice thickness for each ice age category were examined based on satellite observations and modelled results. Interannual changes obtained from Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite(ICESat)-based results show a thickness reduction over perennial sea ice(ice that survives at least one melt season with an age of no less than 2 year) up to approximately 0.5–1.0 m and 0.6–0.8 m(depending on ice age) during the investigated winter and autumn ICESat periods, respectively. Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System(PIOMAS)-based results provide a view of a continued thickness reduction over the past four decades. Compared to 1980 s, there is a clear thickness drop of roughly 0.50 m in 2010 s for perennial ice. This overall decrease in sea ice thickness can be in part attributed to the amplified warming climate in north latitudes. Besides, we figure out that strongly anomalous southerly summer surface winds may play an important role in prompting the thickness decline in perennial ice zone through transporting heat deposited in open water(primarily via albedo feedback) in Eurasian sector deep into a broader sea ice regime in central Arctic Ocean. This heat source is responsible for enhanced ice bottom melting, leading to further reduction in ice thickness.     

东南极中山站陆缘固定冰2011/2012年度的时空变化

Annual observations of first-year ice(FYI) and second-year ice(SYI) near Zhongshan Station, East Antarctica,were conducted for the first time from December 2011 to December 2012. Melt ponds appeared from early December 2011. Landfast ice partly broke in late January, 2012 after a strong cyclone. Open water was refrozen to form new ice cover in mid-February, and then FYI and SYI co-existed in March with a growth rate of 0.8 cm/d for FYI and a melting rate of 2.7 cm/d for SYI. This difference was due to the oceanic heat flux and the thickness of ice,with weaker heat flux through thicker ice. From May onward, FYI and SYI showed a similar growth by 0.5 cm/d.Their maximum thickness reached 160.5 cm and 167.0 cm, respectively, in late October. Drillings showed variations of FYI thickness to be generally less than 1.0 cm, but variations were up to 33.0 cm for SYI in March,suggesting that the SYI bottom was particularly uneven. Snow distribution was strongly affected by wind and surface roughness, leading to large thickness differences in the different sites. Snow and ice thickness in Nella Fjord had a similar "east thicker, west thinner" spatial distribution. Easterly prevailing wind and local topography led to this snow pattern. Superimposed ice induced by snow cover melting in summer thickened multi-year ice,causing it to be thicker than the snow-free SYI. The estimated monthly oceanic heat flux was ～30.0 W/m2 in March–May, reducing to ～10.0 W/m2 during July–October, and increasing to ～15.0 W/m2 in November. The seasonal change and mean value of 15.6 W/m2 was similar to the findings of previous research. The results can be used to further our understanding of landfast ice for climate change study and Chinese Antarctic Expedition services.     

2018年北极太平洋区域夏季海冰物理及光学性质的研究

The reduction in Arctic sea ice in summer has been reported to have a significant impact on the global climate. In this study, Arctic sea ice/snow at the end of the melting season in 2018 was investigated during CHINARE-2018, in terms of its temperature, salinity, density and textural structure, the snow density, water content and albedo, as well as morphology and albedo of the refreezing melt pond. The interior melting of sea ice caused a strong stratification of temperature, salinity and density. The temperature of sea ice ranged from –0.8℃ to 0℃, and exhibited linear cooling with depth. The average salinity and density of sea ice were approximately 1.3 psu and 825 kg/m~3, respectively, and increased slightly with depth. The first-year sea ice was dominated by columnar grained ice. Snow cover over all the investigated floes was in the melt phase, and the average water content and density were 0.74% and 241 kg/m~3, respectively. The thickness of the thin ice lid ranged from 2.2 cm to 7.0 cm, and the depth of the pond ranged from 1.8 cm to 26.8 cm. The integrated albedo of the refreezing melt pond was in the range of 0.28–0.57. Because of the thin ice lid, the albedo of the melt pond improved to twice as high as that of the mature melt pond. These results provide a reference for the current state of Arctic sea ice and the mechanism of its reduction.     

基于MODIS热红外数据的渤海海冰厚度反演

Level ice thickness distribution pattern in the Bohai Sea in the winter of 2009–2010 was investigated in this paper using MODIS night-time thermal infrared imagery.The cloud cover in the imagery was masked out manually.Level ice thickness was calculated using MODIS ice surface temperature and an ice surface heat balance equation.Weather forcing data was from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF) analyses.The retrieved ice thickness agreed reasonable well with in situ observations from two off-shore oil platforms.The overall bias and the root mean square error of the MODIS ice thickness are –1.4 cm and 3.9 cm,respectively.The MODIS results under cold conditions(air temperature –10°C) also agree with the estimated ice growth from Lebedev and Zubov models.The MODIS ice thickness is sensitive to the changes of the sea ice and air temperature,in particular when the sea ice is relatively thin.It is less sensitive to the wind speed.Our method is feasible for the Bohai Sea operational ice thickness analyses during cold freezing seasons.     

The estimate of sea ice resources quantity in the Bohai Sea based on NOAA/AVHRR data

The research on sea ice resources is the academic base of sea ice exploitation in the Bohai Sea. According to the ice-water spectrum differences and the correlation between ice thickness and albedo, this paper comes up with a sea ice thickness inversion model based on the NOAA/AVHRR data. And then a sea ice resources quantity (SIQ) time series of Bohai Sea is established from 1987 to 2009. The results indicate that the average error of inversion sea ice thickness is below 30%. The maximum sea ice resources quantity is about 6 × 10 9 m 3 and the minimum is 1.3 × 10 9 m 3 . And a preliminary analysis has been made on the errors of the estimate of sea ice resources quantity (SIQ).     

北极各海域海冰覆盖范围的变化特征

Sea ice in the Arctic has been reducing rapidly in the past half century due to global warming.This study analyzes the variations of sea ice extent in the entire Arctic Ocean and its sub regions.The results indicate that sea ice extent reduction during 1979–2013 is most significant in summer,following by that in autumn,winter and spring.In years with rich sea ice,sea ice extent anomaly with seasonal cycle removed changes with a period of 4–6 years.The year of 2003–2006 is the ice-rich period with diverse regional difference in this century.In years with poor sea ice,sea ice margin retreats further north in the Arctic.Sea ice in the Fram Strait changes in an opposite way to that in the entire Arctic.Sea ice coverage index in melting-freezing period is an critical indicator for sea ice changes,which shows an coincident change in the Arctic and sub regions.Since 2002,Region C2 in north of the Pacific sector contributes most to sea ice changes in the central Aarctic,followed by C1 and C3.Sea ice changes in different regions show three relationships.The correlation coefficient between sea ice coverage index of the Chukchi Sea and that of the East Siberian Sea is high,suggesting good consistency of ice variation.In the Atlantic sector,sea ice changes are coincided with each other between the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea as a result of warm inflow into the Kara Sea from the Barents Sea.Sea ice changes in the central Arctic are affected by surrounding seas.     

Species composition,diversity and density of plagic Ostracoda in the East China Sea

On the basis of seasonal investigations at 23°30'~33°00'N,118°30'~128°00'E of the East China Sea during 1997~2000,dynamics on the density and diversity of Ostracoda was discussed.Results showed that totally 26 species were identified.The Ostracoda diversity was opposite to the change of its density in most seasons which reflected an uneven assignment of Ostracoda density among its different species.The Ostracoda density was 0.70 ind./m3 in spring,1.72 ind./m3 in summer,2.57 ind./m3 in autumn and 0.90 ind./m3 in winter.Euconchoecia chierchiae in spring and winter,Euconchoecia maimai in summer and Cypridina dentata in autumn were main dominant species in each season.The Ostracoda density did not show an obvious linear relationship with the hydrologic factors in summer and autumn,but was related to the surface salinity in spring and the surface temperature in winter.Its high density areas mainly distributed in the north offshore in all the seasons while in the south offshore in winter and in spring,and the south nearshore in summer and autumn,implied the zooplankton was a typical warm water animal,whose high density distribution in autumn were located in a similar position to Todarodes pacificus,Navodon Septentrionalis,Scomber japonicus and other fishes in the sea,so as to be an important indicator for fishing ground.The main species dominating in Ostracoda now are different from the species twenty years ago probably attributes to global warming.     

The physical structures of snow and sea ice in the Arctic section of 150°-180°W during the summer of 2010

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 investigated 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 temperature, 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.     

基于CryoSat-2卫星测高数据的北极海冰体积估算方法

近30年来,北极海冰正发生着剧烈的变化。海冰体积是量化海冰变化的重要指标之一。本文以2015年CryoSat-2卫星测高数据和OSI SAF海冰类型产品为基础。提取了浮冰出水高度、积雪深度、海冰密集度、海冰类型等属性信息,通过数据内插、投影变换、栅格转换、空间重采样等工作将海冰属性信息统一为25 km×25 km分辨率的栅格数据集。根据流体静力学平衡原理,逐个估算栅格像元对应的海冰厚度值,将其与对应的海冰面积相乘,估算了北极海冰密集度大于75%海域的海冰体积,并分析了海冰厚度和体积的月变化和季节变化特征。用NASA IceBridge海冰厚度产品对反演的海冰厚度进行验证。结果表明二者相关系数为0.72,有较高的一致性。北极海冰平均厚度春季最大,夏季最小,分别约为2.99 m和1.77 m,最厚的海冰集中在格陵兰沿岸北部和埃尔斯米尔半岛以北海域。多年冰平均厚度大于一年冰。冬季海冰体积最大,约为23.30×103 km3,经过夏季的融化,减少了近70%。一年冰体积季节波动较大,而多年冰体积相对稳定,季节变化不明显。     

基于卫星观测的2003-2013年北极海冰体积变化估算

北极海冰正处于快速减退时期，北极海冰体积变化是全球气候变化的重要指示因子。本文利用两种卫星高度计数据（ICESat和CryoSat-2）反演得到的海冰厚度数据，结合星载辐射计提取的海冰密集度数据以及海冰年龄数据，估算了近期的北极海冰体积以及一年冰和多年冰体积变化。CryoSat-2观测时段（2011-2013年）与ICESat观测时段（2003-2008年）相比，北极海冰体积在秋季（10-11月）和冬季（2-3月）分别减少了1 426 km3和412 km3。其中，秋季和冬季的一年冰的体积增加了702 km3和2 975 km3。相反，多年冰分别减少了2 108 km3和3 206 km3。多年冰的大量流失是造成北极海冰净储量下降的主要原因。     

Estimation of Sea Ice Thickness from SARAL/AltiKa in Drifting Orbit Phase

Abstract

Intra and inter-annual variations in the sea ice thickness are highly sensitive indicators of climatic variations undergoing in the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. This paper describes the method of estimating sea ice thickness using radar waveforms data acquired by SARAL/Altika mission during its drifting orbit phase from July 2016 onwards yielding spatially dense data coverage. Based on statistical analysis of return echoes, classification of the surface has been carried out in three different types, viz. floe, lead and mixed. Time delay correction methods were suitably selected and implemented to make corrections in altimetric range measurements and thereby freeboard. By assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, freeboard data were converted into sea ice thickness. Results show that sea ice thickness varies from 4 to 5?m near ice shelves and 1 to 2.5?m in the marginal sea ice regions. Freeboard and sea ice thickness estimates were also validated using NASA’s Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) datasets. Freeboard measurements show very high correlation (0.97) having RMSE of 0.13. Overestimation of approximately 1–2?m observed in the sea ice thickness, which could be attributed to distance between AltiKa footprint and OIB locations. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that snow depth and snow density over sea ice play crucial role in the estimation of sea ice thickness.     

Properties of sea ice and overlying snow in the Southern Sea of Okhotsk

The general properties of sea ice and overlying snow in the southern Sea of Okhotsk were examined during early February of 2003 to 2005 with the P/V “Soya”. Thin section analysis of crystal structure revealed that frazil ice (48% of total core length) was more prevalent than columnar ice (39%) and that stratigraphic layering was prominent with a mean layer thickness of 12 cm, indicating that dynamic processes are essential to ice growth. The mean thickness of ice blocks and visual observations suggest that ridging dominates the deformation process above thicknesses of 30 to 40 cm. As for snow, it was found that faceted crystals and depth hoar are dominant (78%), as which is also common in the Antarctic sea ice, and is indicative of the strong vertical temperature gradients within the snow. Stable isotope measurements (δ¹⁸O) indicate that snow ice occupies 9% of total core length and that the mass fraction of meteoric ice accounts for 1 to 2% of total ice volume, which is lower than the Antarctic sea ice. Associated with this, the effective fractionation coefficient during the freezing of seawater was also derived. Snow ice was characterized by lower density, higher salinity, and nearly twice the gas content of ice of seawater origin. In addition, it is shown that the surface brine volume fraction and freeboard are well correlated with ice thickness, indicating some promise for remote sensing approaches to the estimation of ice thickness.     

Estimation of Sea Ice Freeboard from SARAL/AltiKa Data

An attempt has been made to derive sea ice freeboard from Ka-band Altimeter (SARAL/AltiKa) over Arctic region for 15 March–15 April 2013 (spring) and 15 September–15 October 2013 (autumn). A waveform template matching technique is employed for classification of leads and floe pixels. The estimated sea ice freeboards were found in close agreement with “Operation IceBridge quick look” freeboards (RMSD = 0.30 m). The differences between the two freeboards were largely due to snow layer over sea ice (R = 0.8). The estimated freeboards were of the order of 0.08–0.15 m during the two seasons.     

雪热传导系数与穿过海冰的热通量研究

雪热传导系数是海冰质量平衡过程中的重要物理参数，决定了穿透海冰的热传导通量。北冰洋海冰质量平衡浮标观测获得多年冰上冬季温度链剖面可以明显地区分冰雪界面。本文考虑到冰雪界面处温度随时间变化，再根据冰雪界面热传导通量连续假定，提出了新的雪热传导系数计算方法。受不同环境因素影响，多年冰上各个浮标的雪热传导系数在0.23~0.41 W/（m·K）之间，均值为（0.32±0.08） W/（m·K）。北冰洋多年冰上冬季穿过海冰的热传导通量最大发生在11月至翌年3月，约14~16 W/m2。结冰季节，来自海冰自身降温的热量对穿过海冰向大气传输的热量贡献逐月减少，从9月100%减小到12月的35%，翌年的1月至3月稳定在10%左右。夏季，短波辐射通能量通过热传导自上而下加热海冰，海冰上层温度高于下层，热量传播方向与冬季反向，往海冰内部传递。直到9月短波辐射完全消失，气温下降，热量再次转变为自下往上传递。从冰底热传导来看，夏季出现海冰向冰水界面传递热量现象。由于雪较好的绝热性，冰上覆雪极大地削弱了海冰上层热传导通量，从而减缓了秋冬季节的结冰速度。尽管受雪厚影响，多年冰上层热传导通量与气温依旧具有很好的线性关系，气温每降低1℃，热传导通量增加约0.59 W/m2。