High-resolution simulations of interactions between surface ocean dynamics and frazil ice

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: A. Herman, M. Dojczman, K. Świszcz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2020
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Geology; QE1-996.5; Langmuir; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3707-2020; https://doaj.org/article/6ddd21a142234e3f91432a9c310536c5

Frazil and grease ice forms in the ocean mixed layer (OML) during highly turbulent conditions (strong wind, large waves) accompanied by intense heat loss to the atmosphere. Three main velocity scales that shape the complex, three-dimensional (3D) OML dynamics under those conditions are the friction velocity u * at the ocean–atmosphere interface, the vertical velocity w * associated with convective motion, and the vertical velocity <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><msub><mi>w</mi><mrow><mo>*</mo><mo>,</mo><mspace width="0.125em" linebreak="nobreak"/><mi mathvariant="normal">L</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="21pt" height="12pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="beb1e343f286f70f291092e157a350bb"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-14-3707-2020-ie00001.svg" width="21pt" height="12pt" src="tc-14-3707-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> associated with Langmuir turbulence. The fate of buoyant particles, e.g., frazil crystals, in that dynamic environment depends primarily on their floatability, i.e., the ratio of their rising velocity w t to the characteristic vertical velocity, which is dependent on w * and <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><msub><mi>w</mi><mrow><mo>*</mo><mo>,</mo><mspace linebreak="nobreak" width="0.125em"/><mi mathvariant="normal">L</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="21pt" height="12pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="b521d5f3fb6c8003f05a6b18a296ce33"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-14-3707-2020-ie00002.svg" ...