Ice Properties in the Greenland and Barents Seas During Summer

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Overgaard, Søren, Wadhams, Peter, Leppäranta, Matti
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1983
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Svalbard; Barents Sea; Greenland; East Greenland; Fram Strait; Journal of Glaciology; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000005219; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000005219

Abstract The analysis of sea-ice cores from three summer field operations to the European Arctic is reported, and the ice properties are related to general conditions of ice distribution, thickness, and ridging in the experimental areas. The operations were in 1978 and 1979 to the Kong Oscars Fjord area of East Greenland (about lat. 72° N.) and in 1980 to the Barents Sea, Fram Strait, and the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard and Zemlya Frantsa Iosifa on the Swedish Ymer-80 expedition. Salinity profiles show the effect on multi-year floes of a year’s additional confinement in a fjord, the effect of a month’s desalination (July to August) on first-year and multi-year ice, and the difference between first-year and multi-year ice at the end of the melt season. The average salinity as a function of ice thickness agrees reasonably well with the results of Cox and Weeks (1974). Temperature, density, pH, and ionic composition results are also reported, and the effect of brine volume on dielectric constant discussed.