Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures
Observations of sea ice surface temperature provide crucial information for studying Arctic climate, particularly during winter. We examined 1 m resolution surface temperature maps from 35 helicopter flights between October 2, 2019, and April 23, 2020, recorded during the Multidisciplinary drifting...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023 https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article-pdf/doi/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023/812897/elementa.2023.00023.pdf |
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crunicaliforniap:10.1525/elementa.2023.00023 2024-06-23T07:50:01+00:00 Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures Thielke, Linda Spreen, Gunnar Huntemann, Marcus Murashkin, Dmitrii 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023 https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article-pdf/doi/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023/812897/elementa.2023.00023.pdf en eng University of California Press http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Elem Sci Anth volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2325-1026 journal-article 2024 crunicaliforniap https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023 2024-05-24T13:22:49Z Observations of sea ice surface temperature provide crucial information for studying Arctic climate, particularly during winter. We examined 1 m resolution surface temperature maps from 35 helicopter flights between October 2, 2019, and April 23, 2020, recorded during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). The seasonal cycle of the average surface temperature spanned from 265.6 K on October 2, 2019, to 231.8 K on January 28, 2020. The surface temperature was affected by atmospheric changes and varied across scales. Leads in sea ice (cracks of open water) were of particular interest because they allow greater heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere than thick, snow-covered ice. Leads were classified by a temperature threshold. The lead area fraction varied between 0% and 4% with higher variability on the local (5–10 km) than regional scale (20–40 km). On the regional scale, it remained stable at 0–1% until mid-January, increasing afterward to 4%. Variability in the lead area is caused by sea ice dynamics (opening and closing of leads), as well as thermodynamics with ice growth (lead closing). We identified lead orientation distributions, which varied between different flights but mostly showed one prominent orientation peak. The lead width distribution followed a power law with a negative exponent of 2.63, which is in the range of exponents identified in other studies, demonstrating the comparability to other data sets and extending the existing power law relationship to smaller scales down to 3 m. The appearance of many more narrow leads than wide leads is important, as narrow leads are not resolved by current thermal infrared satellite observations. Such small-scale lead statistics are essential for Arctic climate investigations because the ocean–atmosphere heat exchange does not scale linearly with lead width and is larger for narrower leads. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Sea ice University of California Press Arctic Elem Sci Anth 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
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University of California Press |
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crunicaliforniap |
language |
English |
description |
Observations of sea ice surface temperature provide crucial information for studying Arctic climate, particularly during winter. We examined 1 m resolution surface temperature maps from 35 helicopter flights between October 2, 2019, and April 23, 2020, recorded during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). The seasonal cycle of the average surface temperature spanned from 265.6 K on October 2, 2019, to 231.8 K on January 28, 2020. The surface temperature was affected by atmospheric changes and varied across scales. Leads in sea ice (cracks of open water) were of particular interest because they allow greater heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere than thick, snow-covered ice. Leads were classified by a temperature threshold. The lead area fraction varied between 0% and 4% with higher variability on the local (5–10 km) than regional scale (20–40 km). On the regional scale, it remained stable at 0–1% until mid-January, increasing afterward to 4%. Variability in the lead area is caused by sea ice dynamics (opening and closing of leads), as well as thermodynamics with ice growth (lead closing). We identified lead orientation distributions, which varied between different flights but mostly showed one prominent orientation peak. The lead width distribution followed a power law with a negative exponent of 2.63, which is in the range of exponents identified in other studies, demonstrating the comparability to other data sets and extending the existing power law relationship to smaller scales down to 3 m. The appearance of many more narrow leads than wide leads is important, as narrow leads are not resolved by current thermal infrared satellite observations. Such small-scale lead statistics are essential for Arctic climate investigations because the ocean–atmosphere heat exchange does not scale linearly with lead width and is larger for narrower leads. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thielke, Linda Spreen, Gunnar Huntemann, Marcus Murashkin, Dmitrii |
spellingShingle |
Thielke, Linda Spreen, Gunnar Huntemann, Marcus Murashkin, Dmitrii Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
author_facet |
Thielke, Linda Spreen, Gunnar Huntemann, Marcus Murashkin, Dmitrii |
author_sort |
Thielke, Linda |
title |
Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
title_short |
Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
title_full |
Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
title_fullStr |
Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
title_sort |
spatio-temporal variability of small-scale leads based on helicopter maps of winter sea ice surface temperatures |
publisher |
University of California Press |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023 https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article-pdf/doi/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023/812897/elementa.2023.00023.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice |
op_source |
Elem Sci Anth volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2325-1026 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00023 |
container_title |
Elem Sci Anth |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1802640771397976064 |