Attenuation of lateral propagating light in sea ice measured with an artificial lamp in winter Arctic

The attenuation property of a lateral propagating light (LPL) in sea ice was measured using an artificial lamp in the Canadian Arctic during the 2007/2008 winter. A measurement method is proposed and applied whereby a recording instrument is buried in the sea ice and an artificial lamp is moved acro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cold Regions Science and Technology
Main Authors: Zhao, J. -P., Li, T., Barber, D., Ren, J-P, Pucko, M., Li, S. -J., Li, X.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2010
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Online Access:http://ir.qdio.ac.cn/handle/337002/32704
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2009.12.006
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Summary:The attenuation property of a lateral propagating light (LPL) in sea ice was measured using an artificial lamp in the Canadian Arctic during the 2007/2008 winter. A measurement method is proposed and applied whereby a recording instrument is buried in the sea ice and an artificial lamp is moved across the instrument. The apparent attenuation coefficient mu(lambda) for the lateral propagating light is obtained from the measured logarithmic relative variation rate. With the exception of blue and red lights, the attenuation coefficient changed little with wavelength, but changed considerably with depth. The vertical decrease of the attenuation coefficient was found to be correlated with salinity: the greater the salinity, the greater the attenuation coefficient. A clear linear relation of salinity and the lateral attenuation coefficient with R(2)=0.939 exists to address the close correlation of the attenuation of LPL with the scattering from the brine. The observed attenuation coefficient of LPL is much larger than that of the vertical propagation light, which we speculate to be caused by scattering. Part of this scattered component is transmitted out of the sea ice from the upper and lower surfaces. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.