Back to Search
Start Over
Snow contribution to first-year and second-year Arctic sea ice mass balance north of Svalbard
- Source :
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 122:2539-2549
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2017.
-
Abstract
- The salinity and water oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of twenty-nine first-year (FYI) and second-year (SYI) Arctic sea ice cores (total length 32.0 m) from the drifting ice pack north of Svalbard were examined to quantify the contribution of snow to sea ice mass. Five cores (total length 6.4 m) were analyzed for their structural composition showing variable contribution of 10-30% by granular ice. In these cores snow had been entrained in 6 to 28% of the total ice thickness. We found evidence of snow contribution in about three quarter of the sea ice cores, when surface granular layers had very low δ18O values. Snow contributed 7.5-9.7% to sea ice mass balance on average (including also cores with no snow) using δ18O mass balance calculations. In SYI cores snow fraction by mass (12.7-16.3%) was much higher than in FYI cores (3.3-4.4%), while the bulk salinity of FYI (4.9) was distinctively higher than for SYI (2.7). We surmise that oxygen isotopes and salinity profiles can give information on the age of the ice and allows to distinguish between FYI and SYI (or older) ice in the area north of Svalbard. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
- Subjects :
- Drift ice
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
0211 other engineering and technologies
02 engineering and technology
Antarctic sea ice
Oceanography
01 natural sciences
Arctic ice pack
Geophysics
Space and Planetary Science
Geochemistry and Petrology
Sea ice thickness
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Melt pond
Sea ice
Cryosphere
Physical geography
Ice sheet
Geology
021101 geological & geomatics engineering
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 21699275
- Volume :
- 122
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........700c1dd9acbdad05786b259a3398da3a