Sea Ice Characteristics and Seasonal Variability of Ers-1 Sar Backscatter in the Bellingshausen Sea

2013 ◽  
pp. 213-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Morris ◽  
Martin O. Jeffries ◽  
Shusun Li
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Seasonal Variability ◽  
Bellingshausen Sea

scholarly journals The importance of wind-blown snow redistribution to snow accumulation on Bellingshausen Sea ice

2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (57) ◽  
pp. 271-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine C. Leonard ◽  
Ted Maksym
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Blowing Snow ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Antarctic Sea Ice ◽  
Drifting Snow ◽  
Bellingshausen Sea ◽  
Ice Mass Balance ◽  
High Winds

AbstractSnow distribution is a dominating factor in sea-ice mass balance in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica, through its roles in insulating the ice and contributing to snow-ice production. the wind has long been qualitatively recognized to influence the distribution of snow accumulation on sea ice, but the relative importance of drifting and blowing snow has not been quantified over Antarctic sea ice prior to this study. the presence and magnitude of drifting snow were monitored continuously along with wind speeds at two sites on an ice floe in the Bellingshausen Sea during the October 2007 Sea Ice Mass Balance in the Antarctic (SIMBA) experiment. Contemporaneous precipitation measurements collected on board the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer and accumulation measurements by automated ice mass-balance buoys (IMBs) allow us to document the proportion of snowfall that accumulated on level ice surfaces in the presence of high winds and blowing-snow conditions. Accumulation on the sea ice during the experiment averaged <0.01 m w.e. at both IMB sites, during a period when European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analyses predicted >0.03 m w.e. of precipitation on the ice floe. Accumulation changes on the ice floe were clearly associated with drifting snow and high winds. Drifting-snow transport during the SIMBA experiment was supply-limited. Using these results to inform a preliminary study using a blowing-snow model, we show that over the entire Southern Ocean approximately half of the precipitation over sea ice could be lost to leads.

scholarly journals Albedo of the ice covered Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. I. Weiss ◽  
J. C. King ◽  
T. A. Lachlan-Cope ◽  
R. S. Ladkin
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
First Year ◽  
Pack Ice ◽  
Bellingshausen Sea ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. This study investigates the surface albedo of the sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer. Aircraft measurements of the surface albedo, which were conducted in the sea ice areas of the Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas show significant differences between these two regions. The averaged surface albedo varied between 0.13 and 0.81. The ice cover of the Bellingshausen Sea consisted mainly of first year ice and the sea surface showed an averaged sea ice albedo of αi = 0.64 ± 0.2 (± standard deviation). The mean sea ice albedo of the pack ice area in the western Weddell Sea was αi = 0.75 ± 0.05. In the southern Weddell Sea, where new, young sea ice prevailed, a mean albedo value of αi = 0.38 ± 0.08 was observed. Relatively warm open water and thin, newly formed ice had the lowest albedo values, whereas relatively cold and snow covered pack ice had the highest albedo values. All sea ice areas consisted of a mixture of a large range of different sea ice types. An investigation of commonly used parameterizations of albedo as a function of surface temperature in the Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea ice areas showed that the albedo parameterizations do not work well for areas with new, young ice.

Sources and fluxes of dissolved iron in the Bellingshausen Sea (West Antarctica): The importance of sea ice, icebergs and the continental margin

2015 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 518-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.T.M. De Jong ◽  
S.E. Stammerjohn ◽  
S.F. Ackley ◽  
J.-L. Tison ◽  
N. Mattielli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Continental Margin ◽  
West Antarctica ◽  
Dissolved Iron ◽  
Bellingshausen Sea

scholarly journals Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Measurements of Surface Wave Decay and Directional Spectra in the Marginal Sea Ice Zone*

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Hayes ◽  
Adrian Jenkins ◽  
Stephen McPhail
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ◽  
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler ◽  
Underwater Vehicle ◽  
Wave Decay ◽  
Marginal Sea ◽  
Bellingshausen Sea ◽  
Current Profiler ◽  
Directional Wave ◽  
Ice Edge

Abstract In March 2003 several autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) missions were carried out under sea ice in the western Bellingshausen Sea. Data from the upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) on the “Autosub” AUV indicate a strongly oscillating horizontal velocity of the ice due to ocean swell. Swell period, height, direction, and directional spread have been computed every 800 m from the ice edge to 10 km inward for three missions. Exponential, period-dependent attenuation of waves propagating through sea ice was observed. Mean period increased with distance from the ice edge. The wave field refracted during propagation. The directional wave spread does not seem to relate to distance from the ice edge, although higher frequencies tended to be more spread. If suitably deployed, an ordinary ADCP may be used with this technique to study both scalar and directional properties of waves in open or ice-covered water.

scholarly journals Albedo of the ice-covered Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 3259-3289 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. I. Weiss ◽  
J. C. King ◽  
T. A. Lachlan-Cope ◽  
R. S. Ladkin
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Linear Temperature ◽  
Pack Ice ◽  
Bellingshausen Sea ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. This study investigates the surface albedo of the sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral summer. Aircraft measurements of the surface albedo which were conducted in the sea ice areas of the Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea show significant differences between these two regions. The averaged surface albedo varied between 0.13 and 0.81. The ice cover of the Bellingshausen Sea consisted mainly of first year ice and the sea surface showed an averaged sea ice albedo of αi = 0.64 &amp;pm; 0.2 (&amp;pm; standard deviation). The mean sea ice albedo of the pack ice area in the Western Weddell Sea was αi = 0.75 &amp;pm; 0.05. In the Southern Weddell Sea, where new, young sea ice prevailed, a mean albedo value of αi = 0.38 &amp;pm; 0.08 was observed. Relatively warm open water and thin, newly formed ice had the lowest albedo values, whereas relatively cold and snow-covered pack ice had the highest albedo values. All sea ice areas consist of a mixture of a large variability of different sea ice types. An investigation of commonly used parameterizations of albedo as a function of surface temperature in the Weddell and Bellingshausen Sea ice areas showed that the albedo parameterizations don't work well in particular for areas with new, young ice. We determined typical linear temperature-albedo functions for three sea ice areas adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula, which are reflecting the differences in the mixture of ice age, thickness and sea ice surface cover.

scholarly journals Variability and changes of Arctic sea ice thickness distribution under different AO/DA states

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-167
Author(s):  
A. Oikkonen ◽  
J. Haapala
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Seasonal Variability ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Thickness Distribution ◽  
Beaufort Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ice Thickness ◽  
Sea Ice Thickness ◽  
Ice Pack

Abstract. Changes of the mean sea ice thickness and concentration in the Arctic are well known. However, comparable little is known about the ice thickness distribution and the composition of ice pack in quantity. In this paper we determine the ice thickness distributions, mean and modal thicknesses, and their regional and seasonal variability in the Arctic under different large scale atmospheric circulation modes. We compare characteristics of the Arctic ice pack during the periods 1975–1987 and 1988–2000, which have a different distribution in the AO/DA space. The study is based on submarine measurements of sea ice draft. The prevalent feature is that the peak of sea ice thickness distributions has generally taken a narrower form and shifted toward thinner ice. Also, both mean and modal ice thickness have generally decreased. These noticeable changes result from a loss of thick, mostly deformed, ice. In the spring the loss of the volume of ice thicker than 5 m exceeds 35% in all regions except the Nansen Basin, and the reduction is as much as over 45% at the North Pole and in the Eastern Arctic. In the autumn the volume of thick, mostly deformed ice has decreased by more than 40% in the Canada Basin only, but the reduction is more than 30% also in the Beaufort Sea and in the Chukchi Sea. In the Beaufort Sea region the decrease of the modal draft has been so strong that the peak has shifted from multiyear ice to first-year type ice. Also, the regional and seasonal variability of the sea ice thickness has decreased, since the thinning has been the most pronounced in the regions with the thickest pack ice (the Western Arctic), and during the spring (0.6–0.8 m per decade).

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