Sea ice and snow cover characteristics during the winter–spring transition in the Bellingshausen Sea: An overview of SIMBA 2007

Lewis, Michael J.; Tison, Jean-Louis; Weissling, Blake; Delille, Bruno; Ackley, Stephen F.; Brabant, Frédéric; Xie, Hongjie

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2010.10.027

Cited by 59 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In addition, wind redistributes snow from undeformed ice towards the vicinity of rough topographic features such as pressure ridges, while some blowing snow can be lost on its way to open water [Massom et al, 2001;Sturm and Massom, 2010;Leonard and Maksym, 2011]. The irregularities of the sea ice surface, combined with the spatially dependent snowfall rate, snow thermodynamics and wind redistribution induce large variations in snow depth even at sub-meter scales [see, e.g., Mundy et al, 2005;Lewis et al, 2011]. This has important consequences for light-dependent biological process in and under ice, as snow attenuates light very efficiently.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Light Availability In Sea Icementioning

confidence: 99%

Role of sea ice in global biogeochemical cycles: emerging views and challenges

Vancoppenolle

Meiners

Michel

et al. 2013

Quaternary Science Reviews

217

215

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International audienceObservations from the last decade suggest an important role of sea ice in the global biogeochemical cycles, promoted by (i) active biological and chemical processes within the sea ice; (ii) fluid and gas exchanges at the sea ice interface through an often permeable sea ice cover; and (iii) tight physical, biological and chemical interactions between the sea ice, the ocean and the atmosphere. Photosynthetic micro-organisms in sea ice thrive in liquid brine inclusions encased in a pure ice matrix, where they find suitable light and nutrient levels. They extend the production season, provide a winter and early spring food source, and contribute to organic carbon export to depth. Under-ice and ice edge phytoplankton blooms occur when ice retreats, favoured by increasing light, stratification, and by the release of material into the water column. In particular, the release of iron - highly concentrated in sea ice - could have large effects in the iron-limited Southern Ocean. The export of inorganic carbon transport by brine sinking below the mixed layer, calcium carbonate precipitation in sea ice, as well as active ice-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluxes, could play a central role in the marine carbon cycle. Sea ice processes could also significantly contribute to the sulphur cycle through the large production by ice algae of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), the precursor of sulphate aerosols, which as cloud condensation nuclei have a potential cooling effect on the planet. Finally, the sea ice zone supports significant ocean-atmosphere methane (CH₄) fluxes, while saline ice surfaces activate springtime atmospheric bromine chemistry, setting ground for tropospheric ozone depletion events observed near both poles. All these mechanisms are generally known, but neither precisely understood nor quantified at large scales. As polar regions are rapidly changing, understanding the large-scale polar marine biogeochemical processes and their future evolution is of high priority. Earth system models should in this context prove essential, but they currently represent sea ice as biologically and chemically inert. Palaeoclimatic proxies are also relevant, in particular the sea ice proxies, inferring past sea ice conditions from glacial and marine sediment core records and providing analogues for future changes. Being highly constrained by marine biogeochemistry, sea ice proxies would not only contribute to but also benefit from a better understanding of polar marine biogeochemical cycles

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Section: Factors Influencing Light Availability In Sea Icementioning

confidence: 99%

Role of sea ice in global biogeochemical cycles: emerging views and challenges

Vancoppenolle

Meiners

Michel

et al. 2013

Quaternary Science Reviews

217

215

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…I " F ρ water ρ water´ρi ce (9) In order to evaluate whether Equations (8) and (9) provide reasonable estimates of the sea-ice thickness we computed R, ρi ce , and the sea-ice thickness for in situ measurements of the following Antarctic expeditions: GLOBEC in 2002 [44], ARISE in 2003 [45], ISPOL in 2004 [46], SIMBA in 2007 [47] and SIPEX-I in 2007 [48]. The majority of the in situ measurements carried out during these cruises took place in September/October.…”

Section: Empirical Approaches From In Situ Measurements (Oc2013)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic Sea-Ice Thickness Retrieval from ICESat: Inter-Comparison of Different Approaches

2016

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Accurate circum-Antarctic sea-ice thickness is urgently required to better understand the different sea-ice cover evolution in both polar regions. Satellite radar and laser altimetry are currently the most promising tools for sea-ice thickness retrieval. We present qualitative inter-comparisons of winter and spring circum-Antarctic sea-ice thickness computed with different approaches from Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter total (sea ice plus snow) freeboard estimates. We find that approach A, which assumes total freeboard equals snow depth, and approach B, which uses empirical linear relationships between freeboard and thickness, provide the lowest sea-ice thickness and the smallest winter-to-spring increase in seasonal average modal and mean sea-ice thickness: A: 0.0 m and 0.04 m, B: 0.17 and 0.16 m, respectively. Approach C uses contemporary snow depth from satellite microwave radiometry, and we derive comparably large sea-ice thickness. Here we observe an unrealistically large winter-to-spring increase in seasonal average modal and mean sea-ice thickness of 0.68 m and 0.65 m, respectively, which we attribute to biases in the snow depth. We present a conceptually new approach D. It assumes that the two-layer system (sea ice, snow) can be represented by one layer. This layer has a modified density, which takes into account the influence of the snow on sea-ice buoyancy. With approach D we obtain thickness values and a winter-to-spring increase in average modal and mean sea-ice thickness of 0.17 m and 0.23 m, respectively, which lay between those of approaches B and C. We discuss retrieval uncertainty, systematic uncertainty sources, and the impact of grid resolution. We find that sea-ice thickness obtained with approaches C and D agrees best with independent sea-ice thickness information-if we take into account the potential bias of in situ and ship-based observations.

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“…This is the main reason for a snow cover on Antarctic sea ice, which is not only thicker than in the Arctic but also more heterogeneous [3]. Alternating phases of warm air intrusions and cold spells result in a snow cover with a complex vertically layered structure [2][3][4][5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite Remote Sensing of Snow Depth on Antarctic Sea Ice: An Inter-Comparison of Two Empirical Approaches

Kern

Özsoy

2016

Remote Sensing

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Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a key role for sea ice physical processes and complicates retrieval of sea ice thickness using altimetry. Current methods of snow depth retrieval are based on satellite microwave radiometry, which perform best for dry, homogeneous snow packs on level sea ice. We introduce an alternative approach based on in-situ measurements of total (sea ice plus snow) freeboard and snow depth, which we use to compute snow depth on sea ice from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) total freeboard observations. We compare ICESat snow depth for early winter and spring of the years 2004 through 2006 with the Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E) snow depth product. We find ICESat snow depths agree more closely with ship-based visual and air-borne snow radar observations than AMSR-E snow depths. We obtain average modal and mean ICESat snow depths, which exceed AMSR-E snow depths by 5-10 cm in winter and 10-15 cm in spring. We observe an increase in ICESat snow depth from winter to spring for most Antarctic regions in accordance with ground-based observations, in contrast to AMSR-E snow depths, which we find to stay constant or to decrease. We suggest satellite laser altimetry as an alternative method to derive snow depth on Antarctic sea ice, which is independent of snow physical properties.

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Sea ice and snow cover characteristics during the winter–spring transition in the Bellingshausen Sea: An overview of SIMBA 2007

Cited by 59 publications

References 32 publications

Role of sea ice in global biogeochemical cycles: emerging views and challenges

Role of sea ice in global biogeochemical cycles: emerging views and challenges

Antarctic Sea-Ice Thickness Retrieval from ICESat: Inter-Comparison of Different Approaches

Satellite Remote Sensing of Snow Depth on Antarctic Sea Ice: An Inter-Comparison of Two Empirical Approaches

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