Premium
A comprehensive view of Kara Sea polynya dynamics, sea‐ice compactness and export from model and remote sensing data
Author(s) -
Kern S.,
Harms I.,
Bakan S.,
Chen Y.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl023532
Subject(s) - sea ice , geology , sea ice thickness , arctic ice pack , climatology , sea ice concentration , arctic , drift ice , oceanography , environmental science
The Shelf Seas of the Arctic are known for their large sea‐ice production. This paper presents a comprehensive view of the Kara Sea sea‐ice cover from high‐resolution numerical modeling and space‐borne microwave radiometry. As given by the latter the average polynya area in the Kara Sea takes a value of 21.2 × 10 3 km 2 ± 9.1 × 10 3 km 2 for winters (Jan.–Apr.) 1996/97 to 2000/01, being as high as 32.0 × 10 3 km 2 in 1999/2000 and below 12 × 10 3 km 2 in 1998/99. Day‐to‐day variations of the Kara Sea polynya area can be as high as 50 × 10 3 km 2 . For the seasons 1996/97 to 2000/01 the modeled cumulative winter ice‐volume flux out of the Kara Sea varied between 100 km 3 a −1 and 350 km 3 a −1 . Modeled high (low) ice export coincides with a high (low) average and cumulative polynya area, and with a low (high) sea‐ice compactness in the Kara Sea from remote sensing data, and with a high (low) sea‐ice drift speed across its northern boundary derived from independent model data for the winters 1996/97 to 2000/01.