Thermodynamics of sea ice phase composition revisited

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
• Main Authors: Vancoppenolle, Martin, Madec, Gurvan, Thomas, Max, Mcdougall, Trevor
• Other Authors: Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean (NEMO R&D ), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), University of East Anglia Norwich (UEA), University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW), European Project: 730997,EUROCHAMP2020(2020)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02179263; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02179263/document; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02179263/file/Vancoppenolle_et_al_TEOS10_phase_v2.0_no_footnotes.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JC014611

International audience Pure ice, brine and solid minerals are the main contributors to sea ice mass. Constitutional changes with salinity and temperature exert a fundamental control on sea ice physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, current estimation methods and model representations of the sea ice phase composition suffer from two limitations—in a context of poorly quantified uncertainties. First, salt minerals are neglected. Second, formulations are inconsistent with international standards, in particular with the International Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater (TEOS‐10). To address these issues, we revisit the thermodynamics of the sea ice phase composition by confronting observations, theory, and the usual computation methods. We find remarkable agreement between observations and the Gibbs‐Pitzer theory as implemented in FREZCHEM, both for brine salinity (RMSE = 1.9 g/kg) and liquid H2O mass fraction (RMSE = 8.6 g/kg). On this basis, we propose expanded sea ice phase composition equations including minerals, expressed in terms of International Temperature Scale 1990 temperature and absolute salinity, and valid down to the eutectic temperature (−36.2 °C). These equations precisely reproduce FREZCHEM, outcompeting currently used calculation techniques. We also suggest a modification of the TEOS‐10 seawater Gibbs function giving a liquidus curve consistent with observations down to the eutectic temperature without changing TEOS‐10 inside its original validity range.