Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice
Abstract The thermal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice was investigated through a combination of autonomous observations and two‐dimensional high‐resolution fluid dynamics simulations. We observed one relatively fresh pond and one saline pond on the same ice floe, with similar depth. The com...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2018-08-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078077 |
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| author | Joo‐Hong Kim Woosok Moon Andrew J. Wells Jeremy P. Wilkinson Tom Langton Byongjun Hwang Mats A. Granskog David W. Rees Jones |
| author_facet | Joo‐Hong Kim Woosok Moon Andrew J. Wells Jeremy P. Wilkinson Tom Langton Byongjun Hwang Mats A. Granskog David W. Rees Jones |
| author_sort | Joo‐Hong Kim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The thermal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice was investigated through a combination of autonomous observations and two‐dimensional high‐resolution fluid dynamics simulations. We observed one relatively fresh pond and one saline pond on the same ice floe, with similar depth. The comparison of observations and simulations indicates that thermal convection dominates in relatively fresh ponds, but conductive heat transfer dominates in salt‐stratified ponds. Using a parameterized surface energy balance, we estimate that the heat flux to the ice is larger under the saline pond than the freshwater pond when averaged over the observational period. The deviation is sensitive to assumed wind, varying between 3 and 14 W/m2 for winds from 0 to 5 m/s. If this effect persists as conditions evolve through the melt season, our results suggest that this imbalance potentially has a climatologically significant impact on sea‐ice evolution. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-56f527ff86bc42b5bb575ce95c350f2f |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-56f527ff86bc42b5bb575ce95c350f2f2025-08-20T02:57:52ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072018-08-0145168304831310.1029/2018GL078077Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea IceJoo‐Hong Kim0Woosok Moon1Andrew J. Wells2Jeremy P. Wilkinson3Tom Langton4Byongjun Hwang5Mats A. Granskog6David W. Rees Jones7Korea Polar Research Institute Incheon South KoreaNordic Institute for Theoretical Physics Stockholm SwedenAtmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics University of Oxford Oxford UKBritish Antarctic Survey Cambridge UKAtmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics University of Oxford Oxford UKScottish Association for Marine Science Oban UKNorwegian Polar Institute Fram Centre Tromsø NorwayDepartment of Earth Sciences University of Oxford Oxford UKAbstract The thermal evolution of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice was investigated through a combination of autonomous observations and two‐dimensional high‐resolution fluid dynamics simulations. We observed one relatively fresh pond and one saline pond on the same ice floe, with similar depth. The comparison of observations and simulations indicates that thermal convection dominates in relatively fresh ponds, but conductive heat transfer dominates in salt‐stratified ponds. Using a parameterized surface energy balance, we estimate that the heat flux to the ice is larger under the saline pond than the freshwater pond when averaged over the observational period. The deviation is sensitive to assumed wind, varying between 3 and 14 W/m2 for winds from 0 to 5 m/s. If this effect persists as conditions evolve through the melt season, our results suggest that this imbalance potentially has a climatologically significant impact on sea‐ice evolution.https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078077melt pondsArctic sea icesalinity of melt pondsheat fluxice mass balance buoy2‐D melt pond model |
| spellingShingle | Joo‐Hong Kim Woosok Moon Andrew J. Wells Jeremy P. Wilkinson Tom Langton Byongjun Hwang Mats A. Granskog David W. Rees Jones Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice Geophysical Research Letters melt ponds Arctic sea ice salinity of melt ponds heat flux ice mass balance buoy 2‐D melt pond model |
| title | Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice |
| title_full | Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice |
| title_fullStr | Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice |
| title_full_unstemmed | Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice |
| title_short | Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice |
| title_sort | salinity control of thermal evolution of late summer melt ponds on arctic sea ice |
| topic | melt ponds Arctic sea ice salinity of melt ponds heat flux ice mass balance buoy 2‐D melt pond model |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078077 |
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