Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth
International audience The formation of sea ice in polar regions is possible because a salinity gradient or halocline keeps the water column stable despite intense cooling. Here, we demonstrate that a unique water property is central to the maintenance of the polar halocline, namely, that the therma...
Published in: | Science Advances |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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HAL CCSD
2022
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777/document https://hal.science/hal-03952777/file/sciadv.abq0793.pdf https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 |
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Open Polar |
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HAL-CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) |
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language |
English |
topic |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
spellingShingle |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] Roquet, Fabien Ferreira, David Caneill, Romain Schlesinger, Daniel Madec, Gurvan Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth |
topic_facet |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
description |
International audience The formation of sea ice in polar regions is possible because a salinity gradient or halocline keeps the water column stable despite intense cooling. Here, we demonstrate that a unique water property is central to the maintenance of the polar halocline, namely, that the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) of seawater increases by one order of magnitude between polar and tropical regions. Using a fully coupled climate model, it is shown that, even with excess precipitations, sea ice would not form at all if the near-freezing temperature TEC was not well below its ocean average value. The leading order dependence of the TEC on temperature is essential to the coexistence of the mid/low-latitude thermally stratified and the high-latitude sea ice–covered oceans that characterize our planet. A key implication is that nonlinearities of water properties have a first-order impact on the global climate of Earth and possibly exoplanets. |
author2 |
Department of Marine Sciences Gothenburg Göteborgs Universitet = University of Gothenburg (GU) Department of Meteorology Reading University of Reading (UOR) Department of Applied Environmental Science Stockholm (ITM) Stockholm University Bolin Centre for Climate Research Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean (NEMO R&D ) Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)) École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) 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)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) 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)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)) 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)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Roquet, Fabien Ferreira, David Caneill, Romain Schlesinger, Daniel Madec, Gurvan |
author_facet |
Roquet, Fabien Ferreira, David Caneill, Romain Schlesinger, Daniel Madec, Gurvan |
author_sort |
Roquet, Fabien |
title |
Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth |
title_short |
Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth |
title_full |
Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth |
title_fullStr |
Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth |
title_sort |
unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on earth |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777/document https://hal.science/hal-03952777/file/sciadv.abq0793.pdf https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_source |
ISSN: 2375-2548 Science Advances https://hal.science/hal-03952777 Science Advances , 2022, 8 (46), ⟨10.1126/sciadv.abq0793⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777/document https://hal.science/hal-03952777/file/sciadv.abq0793.pdf doi:10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 PUBMEDCENTRAL: PMC9668305 WOS: 000890493500002 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 |
container_title |
Science Advances |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
46 |
_version_ |
1799488777281863680 |
spelling |
ftceafr:oai:HAL:hal-03952777v1 2024-05-19T07:48:14+00:00 Unique thermal expansion properties of water key to the formation of sea ice on Earth Roquet, Fabien Ferreira, David Caneill, Romain Schlesinger, Daniel Madec, Gurvan Department of Marine Sciences Gothenburg Göteborgs Universitet = University of Gothenburg (GU) Department of Meteorology Reading University of Reading (UOR) Department of Applied Environmental Science Stockholm (ITM) Stockholm University Bolin Centre for Climate Research Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean (NEMO R&D ) Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)) École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) 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)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) 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)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)) 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)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité) 2022-11-18 https://hal.science/hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777/document https://hal.science/hal-03952777/file/sciadv.abq0793.pdf https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 en eng HAL CCSD American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777 https://hal.science/hal-03952777/document https://hal.science/hal-03952777/file/sciadv.abq0793.pdf doi:10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 PUBMEDCENTRAL: PMC9668305 WOS: 000890493500002 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 2375-2548 Science Advances https://hal.science/hal-03952777 Science Advances , 2022, 8 (46), ⟨10.1126/sciadv.abq0793⟩ [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2022 ftceafr https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq0793 2024-04-25T01:33:39Z International audience The formation of sea ice in polar regions is possible because a salinity gradient or halocline keeps the water column stable despite intense cooling. Here, we demonstrate that a unique water property is central to the maintenance of the polar halocline, namely, that the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) of seawater increases by one order of magnitude between polar and tropical regions. Using a fully coupled climate model, it is shown that, even with excess precipitations, sea ice would not form at all if the near-freezing temperature TEC was not well below its ocean average value. The leading order dependence of the TEC on temperature is essential to the coexistence of the mid/low-latitude thermally stratified and the high-latitude sea ice–covered oceans that characterize our planet. A key implication is that nonlinearities of water properties have a first-order impact on the global climate of Earth and possibly exoplanets. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice HAL-CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) Science Advances 8 46 |