Antarctic Coastal Polynyas: Do Measurements of Winter Processes give clues to modeling Improvements and better model fidelity?

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• Stephen Ackley (University of Texas at San Antonio)
• Thursday 05 October 2017, 13:30-14:15
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.

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SIPW02 - Ice-fluid interaction

The PIPERS cruise to the Terra Nova Bay (TNB) and Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) polynyas during April-June 2017 focused on joint measurements of air-ice-ocean wave interaction in these polynyas. In Terra Nova Bay, measurements were taken during intense katabatic wind events with sustained winds over 35 meters per second and air temperatures of -15C or below. Despite a relatively short fetch, intense wave fields with wave amplitudes of over 2m and 7-9 sec periods built and large amounts of frazil ice crystals grew. The frazil ice gathered initially into short plumes that eventually were added laterally to create longer, wide streaks. The wave field within the wider streaks was dampened and enhanced the development of pancake ice. Eventually, the open water areas sealed off between the streaks, developing a uniform pancake ice cover of 100 percent concentration. The pancakes continued to grow in diameter and thickness, further attenuating the wave field and the pancake ice growt h then ceased. While the waves died off however, katabatic wind velocities were sustained and resulted in a wide area of concentrated, rafted, pancake ice that was rapidly advected downstream until the end of the katabatic event. The equilibrium thickness of the ice was typically 30 to 40 cm in the pancake ice. High resolution TerraSar-X radar satellite imagery showed the length of the ice area produced in one single event extended over 300km or ten times the length of the open water area during the polynya event. The TNB polynya is therefore an “ice factory” where frazil ice is manufactured into pancake ice floes that are then pushed out of the assembly line and advected, rafted and occasionally piled up into “dragon skin” ice, until the katabatic wind dies off at the coastal source.

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