The Ice of the Southern Ocean
Regular sea ice observations off the coasts of Antarctica in the Mirny Station area have been made by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition since 1956. For eight years air ice reconnaissance over the Davis Sea has been made from Mirny Station during all the seasons of the year from the shore to the ice ed...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
1967
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| Online Access: | https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=86 http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00000086/ https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=86&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1 |
| Summary: | Regular sea ice observations off the coasts of Antarctica in the Mirny Station area have been made by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition since 1956. For eight years air ice reconnaissance over the Davis Sea has been made from Mirny Station during all the seasons of the year from the shore to the ice edge. During the voyages of the d/e ship O_B special observations on sea ice and icebergs have been made in the coastal zone of Antarctica. Physical properties, formation and desintegration of sea ice have been studied. The data obtained on sea ice peculiarities may be spread over a vast water area of the Southern Ocean. For many years the author has studied sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The paper deals with general features of sea ice existence in the Antarctic and with differences. The formation and growth of ice from sea water both in the Arctic and Antarctic depend mainly upon air temperature and heat content in the sea. Disintegration and melting of ice in the Antarctic occur differently. Solar radiation, a great amount of diatoms included in the ice thickness and currents carrying ice out to the north into more warm waters play most important part here. The amount of old ice remaining in the Antarctic waters after the summer season is considerably less than in the Arctic waters. In the coastal zone of Antarctica due to ice cooling from ice cliffs, ice shelves and icebergs a great amount of intra-water ice crystals are formed. The crystals, coming to the surface, increase ice thickness. Due to great depths the width of the fast ice at the coasts of Antarctica is 20-30 miles, the width of the fast ice in the Arctic is hundreds of miles. A characteristic peculiarity of the Antarctic waters is the existence of icebergs. The icebergs have irregular spreading over the water area of the Southern Ocean. Soviet investigators have made an attempt to calculate the volume of fresh water in icebergs. It has been established that the annual runoff of fresh water from melting of icebergs is negligible and does not play any ... |
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