Thermodynamic properties of snow cover on sea ice during the austral summer in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica

• Main Authors: Hongwei, Han, Peng, Cheng, Zhijun, Li, Ruibo, Lei, Peng, Lu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2014
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Oceans; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; East Antarctica; Polar Science; Prydz Bay; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2515/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2515/1/A20140102.pdf

The thermodynamic properties of snow cover on sea ice play a key role in the ice-ocean-atmosphere system and have been a focus of recent scientific research. In this study, we investigated the thermodynamic properties of snow cover on sea ice in the Nella Fjord, Prydz Bay, East Antarctica (69°20′S, 76°07′E), near the Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station. Our observations were carried out during the 29th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition. We found that the vertical temperature profile of snow cover changed considerably in response to changes in air temperature and solar radiation during the summer. Associated with the changes in the temperature profile were fluctuations in the temperature gradient within the upper 10 cm of the snow cover. Results of previous research have shown that the thermal conductivity of snow is strongly correlated with snow density. To calculate the thermal conductivity in this study, we measured densities in three snow pits. The calculated thermal conductivity ranged from 0.258–0.569 W∙m-1∙K-1. We present these datasets to show how involved parameters changed, and to contribute to a better understanding of melting processes in the snow cover on sea ice.