Percolation blockage: A process that enables melt pond formation on first year <scp>A</scp>rctic sea ice

Polashenski, Chris; Golden, Kenneth M.; Perovich, Donald K.; Skyllingstad, Eric D.; Arnsten, Alexandra E.; Stwertka, C.; Wright, Nicholas

doi:10.1002/2016jc011994

Cited by 51 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This can create localized ice plugs within the highly connected brine network of apparently porous sea ice and allow melt ponds to persist above sea level well after brine volume reached a critical level (5-10 %). Such deviation from the porosity-permeability relationship following freshwater intrusion has been demonstrated in Polashenski et al (2017). We suggest that we observed such a case of melt pond persistence above sea level at station Ice3.…”

Section: Physical Controls Of Dms Concentrations In Melt Pondssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Brine volume, derived from bulk salinity and temperature, generally provides a valid proxy for sea ice permeability. In some cases, however, melting of high snowpack generates a considerable flow (up to 15 cm d −1 ) of freshwater into the porous structure of sea ice (Polashenski et al, 2017). This can create localized ice plugs within the highly connected brine network of apparently porous sea ice and allow melt ponds to persist above sea level well after brine volume reached a critical level (5-10 %).…”

Section: Physical Controls Of Dms Concentrations In Melt Pondsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Snow deposited at the surface of the sea ice progressively melts during the thawing season and may accumulate above sea level in depressions at the surface of the ice to form melt ponds (Lüthje et al, 2006), likely through a recently identified process of percolation blockage (Polashenski et al, 2017). In the Arctic, melt pond fraction over first-year sea ice (FYI) in late springsummer usually ranges from 50 to 60 %, locally reaching 90 % (Fetterer and Untersteiner, 1998;Eicken et al, 2004;Lüthje et al, 2006;Perovich et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considerable efforts have been dedicated to the understanding of underlying process controlling the physics of melt ponds and their feedbacks on climate through the control of surface energy balance of the ice (Lüthje et al, 2006;Polashenski et al, 2017). However, little is known about their biogeochemistry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dimethyl sulfide dynamics in first-year sea ice melt ponds in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Melt pond formation is a seasonal pan-Arctic process. During the thawing season, melt ponds may cover up to 90 % of the Arctic first-year sea ice (FYI) and 15 to 25 % of the multi-year sea ice (MYI). These pools of water lying at the surface of the sea ice cover are habitats for microorganisms and represent a potential source of the biogenic gas dimethyl sulfide (DMS) for the atmosphere. Here we report on the concentrations and dynamics of DMS in nine melt ponds sampled in July 2014 in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. DMS concentrations were under the detection limit (< 0.01 nmol L −1 ) in freshwater melt ponds and increased linearly with salinity (r s = 0.84, p ≤ 0.05) from ∼ 3 up to ∼ 6 nmol L −1 (avg. 3.7 ± 1.6 nmol L −1 ) in brackish melt ponds. This relationship suggests that the intrusion of seawater in melt ponds is a key physical mechanism responsible for the presence of DMS. Experiments were conducted with water from three melt ponds incubated for 24 h with and without the addition of two stable isotope-labelled precursors of DMS (dimethylsulfoniopropionate), (D6-DMSP) and dimethylsulfoxide ( 13 C-DMSO). Results show that de novo biological production of DMS can take place within brackish melt ponds through bacterial DMSP uptake and cleavage. Our data suggest that FYI melt ponds could represent a reservoir of DMS available for potential flux to the atmosphere. The importance of this ice-related source of DMS for the Arctic atmosphere is expected to increase as a response to the thinning of sea ice and the areal and temporal expansion of melt ponds on Arctic FYI.

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Section: Physical Controls Of Dms Concentrations In Melt Pondssupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Physical Controls Of Dms Concentrations In Melt Pondsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dimethyl sulfide dynamics in first-year sea ice melt ponds in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

et al. 2018

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“…A distinct 5 variation trend in melt-pond fractions in different regions of the Arctic Ocean has been found using melt-pond fraction retrievals from satellite optical data (Rösel et al, 2012;Zege et al, 2015). In-situ measurements of ice physics were carried out to demonstrate the mechanisms that enable melt-pond formation , and a newly found percolation blockage process was responsible for initial meltwater retention on highly porous first-year ice (FYI) (Polashenski et al, 2017). 10…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The color of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Lu¹,

Leppäranta²,

Cheng³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract.Pond color, which creates the visual appearance of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice in summer, is quantitatively investigated in this study. A two-stream radiative transfer model is used for ponded sea ice: the upwelling irradiance from the pond surface is determined, and then the upwelling spectrum is transformed into the RGB color space through a 10 colorimetric method. The dependence of pond color on various factors such as water and ice properties and incident solar radiation is investigated. The results reveal that increasing underlying ice thickness H i enhances both the green and blue components of pond color, whereas the red component is mostly sensitive to H i for thin ice (H i < 1.5 m) and to pond depth H p for thick ice (H i > 1.5 m), similar to the behavior of melt-pond albedo. The distribution of the incident solar spectrum F 0 with wavelength affects the pond color rather than its level. The pond color changes from dark blue to brighter blue with 15 increasing scattering in ice, but the influence of absorption in ice on pond color is limited. The pond color reproduced by the model agrees well with field observations on Arctic sea ice in summer, which supports the validity of this study. More importantly, pond color has been confirmed to contain information about meltwater and underlying ice, and therefore it can be used as an index to retrieve H i and H p . The results show that retrievals of H i for thin ice agree better with field measurements than retrievals for thick ice, but that retrievals of H p are not good. Color has been shown to be a new potential 20 method to obtain ice thickness information, especially for melting sea ice in summer, although more validation data and improvements to the radiative transfer model will be needed in future.

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Brine Convection, Temperature Fluctuations, and Permeability in Winter Antarctic Land‐Fast Sea Ice

et al. 2018

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Vertical temperature strings are used in sea ice research to study heat flow, ice growth rate, and ocean‐ice‐atmosphere interaction. We demonstrate the feasibility of using temperature fluctuations as a proxy for fluid movement, a key process for supplying nutrients to Antarctic sea ice algal communities. Four strings were deployed in growing, land‐fast sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. By smoothing temperature data with the robust LOESS method, we obtain temperature fluctuations that cannot be explained by insolation or atmospheric heat loss. Statistical distributions of these temperature fluctuations are investigated with sensitivities to the distance from the ice‐ocean interface, average ice temperature, and sea ice structure. Fluctuations are greatest close to the base (<50 mm) at temperatures >−3°C, and are discrete events with an average active period of 43% compared to 11% when the ice is colder (–3°C to −5°C). Assuming fluctuations occur when the Rayleigh number, derived from mushy layer theory, exceeds a critical value of 10 we approximate the harmonic mean permeability of this thick (>1 m) sea ice in terms of distance from the ice‐ocean interface. Near the base, we obtain values in the same range as those measured by others in Arctic spring and summer. The permeability between the ice‐ocean interface and 0.05 ± 0.04 m above it is of order 10−9 m2. Columnar and incorporated platelet ice permeability distributions in the bottom 0.1 m of winter Antarctic sea ice are statistically significantly different although their arithmetic means are indistinguishable.

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Percolation blockage: A process that enables melt pond formation on first year Arctic sea ice

Cited by 51 publications

References 35 publications

Dimethyl sulfide dynamics in first-year sea ice melt ponds in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Dimethyl sulfide dynamics in first-year sea ice melt ponds in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

The color of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Brine Convection, Temperature Fluctuations, and Permeability in Winter Antarctic Land‐Fast Sea Ice

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