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The seasonal evolution of sea ice floe size distribution
Author(s) -
Perovich Donald K.,
Jones Kathleen F.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1002/2014jc010136
Subject(s) - sea ice , geology , arctic ice pack , sea ice thickness , drift ice , pressure ridge , melt pond , arctic , spring (device) , ice albedo feedback , snow , climatology , antarctic sea ice , oceanography , environmental science , geomorphology , physics , thermodynamics
The Arctic sea ice cover undergoes large changes over an annual cycle. In winter and spring, the ice cover consists of large, snow‐covered plate‐like ice floes, with very little open water. By the end of summer, the snow cover is gone and the large floes have broken into a complex mosaic of smaller, rounded floes surrounded by a lace of open water. This evolution strongly affects the distribution and fate of the solar radiation deposited in the ice‐ocean system and consequently the heat budget of the ice cover. In particular, increased floe perimeter can result in enhanced lateral melting. We attempt to quantify the floe evolution process through the concept of a floe size distribution that is modified by lateral melting and floe breaking. A time series of aerial photographic surveys made during the SHEBA field experiment is analyzed to determine evolution of the floe size distribution from spring through summer. Based on earlier studies, we assume the floe size cumulative distribution could be represented by a power law D − α , where D is the floe diameter. The exponent α as well as the number density of floes N tot are estimated from measurements of total ice area and perimeter. As summer progressed, there was an increase in α as the size distribution shifted toward smaller floes and the number of floes increased. Lateral melting causes the distribution to deviate from a power law for small floe sizes.