| Summary: | LONG TERM GOALS: Long term goals are to observe and model processes controlling ice retreat in the marginal ice zone (MIZ), the narrow strip between open ocean and the ice pack where the seasonal retreat of the main ice pack takes place. It is a highly variable sea ice environment, usually comprised of many individual floes of variable shape and size and made of mixed ice types, from young forming ice to fragmented multiyear ice. The presence of sea ice significantly affects the transport of energy and momentum between the atmosphere and ocean. Deformation of sea ice absorbs atmospheric surface stress acting on the ocean surface and resulting surface features affect aerodynamic drag. Ice cover prevents the local formation of surface gravity waves and attenuates and scatters waves that propagate from the open ocean. As a result, wave motions and wave-driven flows, such as Langmuir circulations, are greatly diminished below pack ice. The albedo of sea ice is large compared to open water, and most of the incoming solar radiation incident on sea ice is reflected back to the atmosphere. The thermal conductivity of sea ice is small, so sensible energy transport between ocean and atmosphere is limited in the presence of sea ice. Specialized Autonomous Ocean Flux Buoys have been developed to study wave effects, thermodynamic responses and turbulent coupling across the coupled ocean – ice – atmosphere system in the context of the larger MIZ DRI program. Award#: N0001412WX20737 , N0001412WX21127
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