The Roland von Glasow Air-Sea-Ice Chamber (RvG-ASIC): an experimental facility for studying ocean–sea-ice–atmosphere interactions

• Published in: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
• Main Authors: M. Thomas, J. France, O. Crabeck, B. Hall, V. Hof, D. Notz, T. Rampai, L. Riemenschneider, O. J. Tooth, M. Tranter, J. Kaiser
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2021
• Subjects: Environmental engineering; TA170-171; Earthwork. Foundations; TA715-787; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Roland; Southern Ocean; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1833-2021; https://doaj.org/article/9ae30dbf5e354fb3b8fb392b81d40828

Sea ice is difficult, expensive, and potentially dangerous to observe in nature. The remoteness of the Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean complicates sampling logistics, while the heterogeneous nature of sea ice and rapidly changing environmental conditions present challenges for conducting process studies. Here, we describe the Roland von Glasow Air-Sea-Ice Chamber (RvG-ASIC), a laboratory facility designed to reproduce polar processes and overcome some of these challenges. The RvG-ASIC is an open-topped 3.5 m 3 glass tank housed in a cold room (temperature range: −55 to +30 ∘ C). The RvG-ASIC is equipped with a wide suite of instruments for ocean, sea ice, and atmospheric measurements, as well as visible and UV lighting. The infrastructure, available instruments, and typical experimental protocols are described. To characterise some of the technical capabilities of our facility, we have quantified the timescale over which our chamber exchanges gas with the outside, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><msub><mi mathvariant="italic">τ</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">l</mi></msub><mo>=</mo><mo>(</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.66</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.07</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="83pt" height="13pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="3b103a1d601997f896a34f882a4ab34e"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="amt-14-1833-2021-ie00001.svg" width="83pt" height="13pt" src="amt-14-1833-2021-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> d, and the mixing rate of our experimental ocean, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><msub><mi mathvariant="italic">τ</mi><mi ...