Optical Properties of Salt Ice

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Lane, J. W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1975
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000034481; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000034481

Abstract The dependence of the extinction coefficient on salinity was investigated for both NaCl-ice and salt-ice made from natural sea-water. Specimens were prepared under a variety of conditions and examined over the wavelength range 4 000 to 8 000 Â. The effects of scattering from air bubbles trapped in the ice were examined for ice made from distilled water. It was found that the method of preparing samples markedly affected their structure, but that, when prepared in the same manner, salt-ice made from natural sea-water and NaCl-ice did not show significantly different transmission properties. It was found that, for a wavelength of 6 328 Â, the data could be fit to the relation within an uncertainty of 26%, where k e is the extinction coefficient, x is the salinity of the ice in g/kg. Within an uncertainty of 10%, there was no variation in transmission for ice at the same temperature and salinity over the wavelength range 4 000 to 8 000 Â. All measurements were made at a temperature of -20° C.