Technical Note: On the use of the mushy-layer Rayleigh number for the interpretation of sea-ice-core data

• Main Authors: Vancoppenolle, Martin, Notz, Dirk, Vivier, Frédéric, Tison, Jean-Louis, Delille, Bruno, Carnat, Gauthier, Zhou, J., Jardon, Fernanda, Griewank, P., Lourenço, Antonio, Haskell, T.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; ice core; Sea ice; The Cryosphere; The Cryosphere Discussions
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00912614; https://doi.org/10.5194/TCD-7-3209-2013

International audience We examine some practical aspects of using a mushy-layer Rayleigh number for the interpretation of sea-ice-core data. In principle, such analysis should allow one to determine convectively active regions within the ice core by identifying those regions in which the mush-Rayleigh number is super-critical. In practice, however, a quantitative analysis is complicated by uncertainties regarding the specific formulation of both the mush-Rayleigh number itself and of the sea-ice permeability that is crucial for quantifying the Rayleigh number. Additionally, brine loss from highly permeable sections of the ice core, in particular close to the ice-ocean interface, and typically weekly ice core sampling, limit the practical applicability of the Rayleigh number for ice-core interpretation. We here quantify these uncertainties, suggest a standard method for the computation of the Rayleigh number for sea ice and discuss possibilities and limitations of ice-core interpretation based on the Rayleigh number.