GPR survey and physical measurements of sea ice in Quilty Bay,Larsemann hills,East Antarctica and its correlation with local atmospheric parameters

Sea ice formation in Quilty Bay, East Antarctica shows a strong relationship with climatic conditions and its spatial variation is established by GPR survey over the sea ice during the austral winters. The study also evaluates the variability of sea ice thickness and extent with local weather parameters between 2010 and 2014. Profiling on sea ice in Quilty Bay shows that sea ice thickness decreases gradually towards east. The overall thickness of sea ice is considerably less at the centre of the bay as compared to the coastal side. Two types of fast ice layers have been delineated from GPR surveys i.e. top layer fast ice which incorporates very low density surface snow and underlying high density fast ice i.e. with melt water pockets. Development of sea ice is influenced by persistent easterly winds, temperature fluctuations and ocean currents. Sea ice reveal average annual cyclic trend in Quilty Bay with maximum development in the year 2013 (157.54 cm) and the minimum development has been observed in the year 2010 (99.04 cm).The cyclic pattern of average sea ice accumulation data show perfect inverse correlation with surface air temperature, with measure of reliability R² = 0.93. However, moderate (R² = 0.52) and good (R² = 0.69) degree of inverse relationship is observed with surface snow and overall sea ice (snow and ice) respectively. With 0.46 °C change in temperature, there is 33% change in sea ice condition in Quilty Bay which may remain same as far as ice extents in the region. Besides this easterly winds play a vital role in controlling the snow/ice distribution patterns as reflected by isopach maps.