Platelet Ice under Arctic Pack Ice in Winter

Platelet ice is a unique type of sea ice; its occurrence has numerous implications for physical and ecological systems. Mostly, platelet ice has been reported from the Antarctic where ice crystals grow in supercooled ice shelf water and accumulate below sea ice to form sub-ice platelet layers. In th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Katlein, Christian, Mohrholz, Volker, Sheikin, Igor, Itkin, Polona, Divine, Dmitry V., Stroeve, Julienne, Jutila, Arttu, Krampe, Daniela, Shimanchuk, Egor, Raphael, Ian, Rabe, Benjamin, Kuznetsov, Ivan, Mallet, Maria, Liu, Hailong, Hoppmann, Mario, Fang, Ying‐Chih, Dumitrascu, Adela, Arndt, Stefanie, Anhaus, Philipp, Nicolaus, Marcel, Matero, Ilkka, Oggier, Marc, Eicken, Hajo, Haas, Christian
Format: Conference Object
Language:unknown
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Antarctic
Arctic
Midwinter
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Ice Shelf
Sea ice
Online Access:https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/53468/
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/53468/1/Poster_platelet_ice.pdf
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm20/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/664582
https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.320ba9dd-acc9-4061-b82a-0782317cbb90
Description
Summary:Platelet ice is a unique type of sea ice; its occurrence has numerous implications for physical and ecological systems. Mostly, platelet ice has been reported from the Antarctic where ice crystals grow in supercooled ice shelf water and accumulate below sea ice to form sub-ice platelet layers. In the Arctic however, platelet ice formation has only been sparsely documented so far. The associated formation processes and morphology differ significantly from the Antarctic, but currently remain poorly understood. Here, we present the first comprehensive, repeat in-situ observations of a decimeter thick sub-ice platelet layer under drifting pack ice of the Central Arctic in winter. Observations carried out with a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) during the midwinter leg of the MOSAiC drift expedition provided clear evidence of the growth of platelet layers from supercooled water present in the ocean mixed layer. This process was observed under all ice types present during the surveys. Oceanographic data from autonomous observing platforms leads us to the conclusion that platelet ice formation is a widespread yet overlooked feature of Arctic winter sea ice growth.

Similar Items