Author(s): Yu Yang; Zhijun Li; Matti Lepparanta; Bin Cheng; Ruibo Lei
Linked Author(s): Zhijun Li, Yu Yang
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Oceanic heat flux underneath the annual landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay, Antarctica is examined by applying a one-dimensional thermodynamic snow/ice model. The model forcing is based on in situ observations carried out in 2006 during the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) as well as meteorological measurements in the vicinity at Zhongshan weather station. The oceanic heat flux is obtained as the residual between model simulations and in situ measurements of ice thickness. During ice growth and early melting period, estimated oceanic heat flux underneath the landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay decreases from about 25 W m on day 100 to 5 W m toward the end of the year. The model sensitivity tothe key parameters, thermal conductivity of snow, thermal conductivity of ice, albedo and snow thickness was also studied. Our modelling experiments showed that the estimatedoceanic heat flux is highly sensitive to choice of the albedo of ice and the thermal conductivity of ice. A ±0.1 W m K variation in the thermal conductivity of ice almost results ±1.5 W m change in the modelled oceanic heat flux.
Year: 2010