A simple model for seawater crystallization in the temperature spectrum

A model of sea ice growth as an expanded region of a phase transition (mushy zone) with a linear temperature profile is developed. The linear temperature distribution agrees with the mushy zone by introducing an equivalent porosity determined by its thermodynamical condition. This approach does not require any a priori information about the dependence of the porosity on the temperature and salinity; it rather allows us to obtain this relation from a solution of the mathematical problem. The model makes it possible to calculate the thickness of the growing ice and to estimate its main characteristics as well as the heat capacity of the underice layer under the conditions of undisturbed growth at any moment of the autumn-winter season up to its maximal thickness with account for the snow accumulation, basin depth, varying regime of cooling, and water salinity.