Observing and Modeling the Surface Scattering Layer of First-Year Arctic Sea Ice

• Main Authors: Moritz, Richard E, Light, Bonnie
• Other Authors: WASHINGTON UNIV SEATTLE APPLIED PHYSICS LAB
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *ARCTIC OCEAN; *BACKSCATTERING; *SCATTERING; *SEA ICE; *SOLAR RADIATION; ATMOSPHERES; BIOLOGY; CYCLES; DEPTH; FEEDBACK; ICE; ICE FORMATION; IMPACT; INFRARED RADIATION; LAYERS; LIQUIDS; MEAN; MECHANICAL PROPERTIES; MODELS; OCEANS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; PONDS; SHORT WAVELENGTHS; SNOW COVER; UNDERICE; WATER; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA630015; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA630015

The long-term goal of this work is to increase the quantitative understanding of the partitioning of incident solar radiation by sea ice. The partitioning of shortwave radiation into components backscattered to the atmosphere, absorbed by the ice, and transmitted to the ocean is central to icealbedo feedback, the mean annual cycle of ice thickness, mechanical and biological properties of the ice, and the qualitative and quantitative properties of light fields available to under-ice biological communities. This partitioning is known to depend strongly on the physical properties of the ice cover including ice concentration, snow cover, area, depth and size of liquid water ponds, and the presence of surface scattering layers. The focus of this research is to address the impact of surface scattering layers on the partitioning of incident solar radiation at the atmosphere-sea ice-ocean interface.