Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice
Southern Ocean sea ice can exhibit widespread flooding and subsequent snow-ice formation, due to relatively thick snow covers compared to the total ice thickness. Considerable subkilometer scale variability in snow and ice thickness causes poorly constrained uncertainties in determining the amount o...
Published in: | Journal of Glaciology |
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2021
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.54 http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 |
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ftinfoscience:oai:infoscience.epfl.ch:290535 2023-05-15T13:44:32+02:00 Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice Wever, Nander Leonard, Katherine Maksym, Ted White, Seth Proksch, Martin Lenaerts, Jan T. M. 2021-12-04T01:29:44Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.54 http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 unknown Cambridge, CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS isi:000721347700009 doi:10.1017/jog.2021.54 http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 Text 2021 ftinfoscience https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.54 2023-02-13T23:07:52Z Southern Ocean sea ice can exhibit widespread flooding and subsequent snow-ice formation, due to relatively thick snow covers compared to the total ice thickness. Considerable subkilometer scale variability in snow and ice thickness causes poorly constrained uncertainties in determining the amount of flooding that occurs. Using datasets of snow depth and ice thickness acquired in the Weddell Sea during austral winter 2013 (AWECS campaign) from three floes, we demonstrate large spatial variability of a factor 10 and 5 for snow and combined snow and ice thickness, respectively. The temporal evolution after the floe visit was recorded by automatic weather station and ice mass balance buoys. Using a physics-based, multi-layer snow/sea ice model in a one-dimensional and distributed mode to simulate the thermodynamic processes, we show that the distributed simulations, modeling flooding across the entire heterogeneous floe, produced vastly different amounts of flooding than one-dimensional single point simulations. Three times the flooding is produced in the one-dimensional simulation for the buoy location than distributed (floe-averaged) simulations. The latter is in close agreement with buoy observations. The results suggest that using point observations or one-dimensional simulations to extrapolate processes on the floe-scale can overestimate the amount of flooding and snow-ice formation. Text Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean Weddell Sea EPFL Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne) Antarctic Austral Southern Ocean Weddell Weddell Sea Journal of Glaciology 67 266 1055 1073 |
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Open Polar |
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EPFL Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne) |
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ftinfoscience |
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unknown |
description |
Southern Ocean sea ice can exhibit widespread flooding and subsequent snow-ice formation, due to relatively thick snow covers compared to the total ice thickness. Considerable subkilometer scale variability in snow and ice thickness causes poorly constrained uncertainties in determining the amount of flooding that occurs. Using datasets of snow depth and ice thickness acquired in the Weddell Sea during austral winter 2013 (AWECS campaign) from three floes, we demonstrate large spatial variability of a factor 10 and 5 for snow and combined snow and ice thickness, respectively. The temporal evolution after the floe visit was recorded by automatic weather station and ice mass balance buoys. Using a physics-based, multi-layer snow/sea ice model in a one-dimensional and distributed mode to simulate the thermodynamic processes, we show that the distributed simulations, modeling flooding across the entire heterogeneous floe, produced vastly different amounts of flooding than one-dimensional single point simulations. Three times the flooding is produced in the one-dimensional simulation for the buoy location than distributed (floe-averaged) simulations. The latter is in close agreement with buoy observations. The results suggest that using point observations or one-dimensional simulations to extrapolate processes on the floe-scale can overestimate the amount of flooding and snow-ice formation. |
format |
Text |
author |
Wever, Nander Leonard, Katherine Maksym, Ted White, Seth Proksch, Martin Lenaerts, Jan T. M. |
spellingShingle |
Wever, Nander Leonard, Katherine Maksym, Ted White, Seth Proksch, Martin Lenaerts, Jan T. M. Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice |
author_facet |
Wever, Nander Leonard, Katherine Maksym, Ted White, Seth Proksch, Martin Lenaerts, Jan T. M. |
author_sort |
Wever, Nander |
title |
Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice |
title_short |
Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice |
title_full |
Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice |
title_fullStr |
Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of Antarctic sea ice |
title_sort |
spatially distributed simulations of the effect of snow on mass balance and flooding of antarctic sea ice |
publisher |
Cambridge, CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.54 http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 |
geographic |
Antarctic Austral Southern Ocean Weddell Weddell Sea |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Austral Southern Ocean Weddell Weddell Sea |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Southern Ocean Weddell Sea |
op_source |
http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 |
op_relation |
isi:000721347700009 doi:10.1017/jog.2021.54 http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/290535 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.54 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
67 |
container_issue |
266 |
container_start_page |
1055 |
op_container_end_page |
1073 |
_version_ |
1766202877570711552 |