Snow on Antarctic sea ice
Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a complex and highly variable role in air-sea-ice interaction processes and the global climate system. This paper presents snow data collected during the past ten years, and reviews major findings. These include: differences in regional and seasonal snow properties an...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
2001
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/4436/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/4436/1/Mas2001a.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.15011 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.15011.d001 |
Summary: | Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a complex and highly variable role in air-sea-ice interaction processes and the global climate system. This paper presents snow data collected during the past ten years, and reviews major findings. These include: differences in regional and seasonal snow properties and thicknesses; the unique consequences of snow on Antarctic pack ice relative to the Arctic (e.g. the importance of flooding and snow-ice formation); the potential impact if global change increases snowfall; lower observed values of snow thermal conductivity than those used in models; periodic large-scale melt in winter; and the contrast in summer melt in the Antarctic and Arctic. The new findings have significant implications for modelling and remote-sensing studies. Different snow properties from Arctic conditions are recommended for use in Antarctic models; similar differences could affect the interpretation of remote-sensing data over sea ice. |
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