Distributions of runoff, sea-ice melt and brine using δ18O and salinity data — A new view on freshwater cycling in Hudson Bay

The objective of this study is to quantify the impact of freshwater stratification on the vertical gradients of partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and estimates of air-sea CO2 exchange in Hudson Bay during peak sea-ice melt and river runoff. During the spring of 2018, we sampled water in Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait for dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, salinity, the oxygen stable isotope ratio in the water (δ18O), and other ancillary data. The coastal domain and regions close to the ice edge had significant vertical concentration gradients of pCO2 across the top meters of the ocean due to the presence of a stratified fresh layer at the surface. The pCO2 and salinity in the central (where sea-ice melt was significant) and the southeast (where river runoff and sea-ice melt were significant) side of the bay generally increased with depth, with average gradients of 4.5 μatm m–1 and 0.5 m–1, respectively. Ignoring these gradients causes a significant error in calculating air-sea CO2 fluxes, especially when using shipboard underway systems that measure pCO2 at several meters below the sea surface. We found that the oceanic CO2 sink in Hudson Bay is underestimated by approximately 50% if underway pCO2 system measurements are used without correction. However, we observed that these gradients do not persist for more than 5 weeks following ice melt. We have derived a linear correction for underway pCO2 measurements to account for freshwater stratification during periods of 1–5 weeks after ice breakup. Given the lack of measurements in stratified Arctic waters, our results provide a road map to better estimates of the important role of these regions in global carbon cycles.

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The Potential of Space-Based Sea Surface Salinity on Monitoring the Hudson Bay Freshwater Cycle

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12050873 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 873 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wenqing Tang ◽

Simon H. Yueh ◽

Daqing Yang ◽

Ellie Mcleod ◽

Alexander Fore ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Sea Ice ◽

River Discharge ◽

Open Water ◽

Sea Surface ◽

Sea Surface Salinity ◽

The Arctic ◽

Hudson Bay ◽

Surface Salinity ◽

Ice Melt

Hudson Bay (HB) is the largest semi-inland sea in the Northern Hemisphere, connecting with the Arctic Ocean through the Foxe Basin and the northern Atlantic Ocean through the Hudson Strait. HB is covered by ice and snow in winter, which completely melts in summer. For about six months each year, satellite remote sensing of sea surface salinity (SSS) is possible over open water. SSS links freshwater contributions from river discharge, sea ice melt/freeze, and surface precipitation/evaporation. Given the strategic importance of HB, SSS has great potential in monitoring the HB freshwater cycle and studying its relationship with climate change. However, SSS retrieved in polar regions (poleward of 50°) from currently operational space-based L-band microwave instruments has large uncertainty (~ 1 psu) mainly due to sensitivity degradation in cold water (<5°C) and sea ice contamination. This study analyzes SSS from NASA Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) and European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity(SMOS) missions in the context of HB freshwater contents. We found that the main source of the year-to-year SSS variability is sea ice melting, in particular, the onset time and places of ice melt in the first couple of months of open water season. The freshwater contribution from surface forcing P-E is smaller in magnitude comparing with sea ice contribution but lasts on longer time scale through the whole open water season. River discharge is comparable with P-E in magnitude but peaks before ice melt. The spatial and temporal variations of freshwater contents largely exceed the remote sensed SSS uncertainty. This fact justifies the use of remote sensed SSS for monitoring the HB freshwater cycle.

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Widespread surface water pCO2 undersaturation during ice-melt season in an Arctic continental shelf sea (Hudson Bay, Canada)

Elem Sci Anth ◽

10.1525/elementa.2020.00130 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mohamed M. M. Ahmed ◽

Brent G. T. Else ◽

Brian Butterworth ◽

David W. Capelle ◽

Céline Guéguen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Co2 Flux ◽

Early Summer ◽

The Arctic ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽

Hudson Bay ◽

Co2 Fluxes ◽

Arctic Seas ◽

Co2 Partial Pressure ◽

Ice Melt

Estimating sea–air CO2 fluxes in coastal seas remains a source of uncertainty in global carbon budgets because processes like primary production, upwelling, water mixing, and freshwater inputs produce high spatial and temporal variability of CO2 partial pressure (pCO2). As a result, improving our pCO2 baseline observations in these regions is important, especially in sub-Arctic and Arctic seas that are experiencing strong impacts of climate change. Here, we show the patterns and main processes controlling seawater pCO2 and sea–air CO2 fluxes in Hudson Bay during the 2018 spring and early summer seasons. We observed spatially limited pCO2 supersaturation (relative to the atmosphere) near river mouths and beneath sea ice and widespread undersaturated pCO2 in offshore and ice-melt-influenced waters. pCO2 was highly correlated with salinity and temperature, with a limited but statistically significant relationship with chlorophyll a and fluorescent dissolved organic matter. Hudson Bay on average was undersaturated with respect to atmospheric CO2, which we attribute mainly to the dominance of sea-ice meltwater. We calculated an average net CO2 flux of about –5mmol CO2 m–2 day–1 (–3.3 Tg C) during the spring and early summer seasons (92 days). Combining this result with extrapolated estimates for late summer and fall seasons, we estimate the annual CO2 flux of Hudson Bay during the open water season (184 days) to be –7.2 Tg C. Our findings indicate that the bay on average is a weaker CO2 sink than most other Arctic seas, emphasizing the importance of properly accounting for seasonal variability in the Arctic coastal shelves to obtain reliable sea–air CO2 exchange budgets.

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Origins and Levels of Seasonal Forecast Skill for Sea Ice in Hudson Bay Using Canonical Correlation Analysis

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/2010jcli3527.1 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 24 (5) ◽

pp. 1378-1395 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Adrienne Tivy ◽

Stephen E. L. Howell ◽

Bea Alt ◽

John J. Yackel ◽

Thomas Carrieres

Keyword(s):

Correlation Analysis ◽

Sea Ice ◽

Canonical Correlation Analysis ◽

North Atlantic ◽

Canonical Correlation ◽

Seasonal Forecast ◽

Forecast Skill ◽

Sea Surface ◽

Hudson Bay ◽

Ice Concentration

Abstract Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is used to estimate the levels and sources of seasonal forecast skill for July ice concentration in Hudson Bay over the 1971–2005 period. July is an important transition month in the seasonal cycle of sea ice in Hudson Bay because it is the month when the sea ice clears enough to allow the first passage of ships to the Port of Churchill. Sea surface temperature (quasi global, North Atlantic, and North Pacific), Northern Hemisphere 500-mb geopotential height (z500), sea level pressure (SLP), and regional surface air temperature (SAT) are tested as predictors at 3-, 6-, and 9-month lead times. The model with the highest skill has three predictors—fall North Atlantic SST, fall z500, and fall SAT—and significant tercile forecast skill covering 61% of the Hudson Bay region. The highest skill for a single-predictor model is from fall North Atlantic SST (6-month lead). Fall SST explains 69% of the variance in July ice concentration in Hudson Bay and a possible atmospheric link that accounts for the lagged relationship is presented. CCA diagnostics suggest that changes in the subpolar North Atlantic gyre and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO), reflected in sea surface temperature, precedes a deepening/weakening of the winter upper-air ridge northwest of Hudson Bay. Changes in the height of the ridge are reflected in the strength of the winter northwesterly winds over Hudson Bay that have a direct impact on the winter ice thickness distribution; anomalies in winter ice severity are later reflected in the pattern and timing of spring breakup. July ice concentration in Hudson Bay has declined by approximately 20% per decade between 1979 and 2007, and the hypothesized link to the AMO may help explain this significant loss of ice.

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Eddy covariance flux measurements of momentum, heat and carbon dioxide in Hudson Bay at the onset of sea ice melt

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15711 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Richard Sims ◽

Brian Butterworth ◽

Tim Papakyriakou ◽

Mohamed Ahmed ◽

Brent Else

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Gas Exchange ◽

Sea Ice ◽

Eddy Covariance ◽

Open Water ◽

The Arctic ◽

Gas Transfer ◽

Hudson Bay ◽

Flux Measurements ◽

Ice Fraction

Remoteness and tough conditions have made the Arctic Ocean historically difficult to access; until recently this has resulted in an undersampling of trace gas and gas exchange measurements. The seasonal cycle of sea ice completely transforms the air sea interface and the dynamics of gas exchange. To make estimates of gas exchange in the presence of sea ice, sea ice fraction is frequently used to scale open water gas transfer parametrisations. It remains unclear whether this scaling is appropriate for all sea ice regions. Ship based eddy covariance measurements were made in Hudson Bay during the summer of 2018 from the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. We will present fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), heat and momentum and will show how they change around the Hudson Bay polynya under varying sea ice conditions. We will explore how these fluxes change with wind speed and sea ice fraction. As freshwater stratification was encountered during the cruise, we will compare our measurements with other recent eddy covariance flux measurements made from icebreakers and also will compare our turbulent CO2&#160;fluxes with bulk fluxes calculated using underway and surface bottle pCO2&#160;data.&#160;&#160;

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Seasonal evolution and salt/freshwater fluxes of first-year sea ice: Comparison between pack ice and landfast sea ice

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10798 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marc Oggier ◽

Hajo Eicken ◽

Robert Rember ◽

Allison Fong ◽

Dmitry V. Divine ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Ice Cores ◽

Upper Ocean ◽

First Year ◽

Ice Melt ◽

Ice Surface ◽

Freshwater Fluxes ◽

Exchange Processes ◽

Bulk Salinity ◽

Landfast Sea Ice

Sea ice affects the exchange of energy and matter between the atmosphere and the ocean from local to hemispheric scales. Salt fluxes across the ice-ocean interface that drive thermohaline mixing beneath growing sea ice are important elements of upper ocean nutrient and carbon exchange. Sea-ice melt releases freshwater into the upper ocean and results in formation of melt ponds that affect gas and energy transfer across the atmosphere-ice interface. The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) provided an opportunity to follow sea-ice evolution and exchange processes over a full seasonal cycle in a rapidly changing ice cover. To this end, approximately 25 sea-ice cores were collected at 2 distinct sites, representing first-year and multi-year ice, to monitor physical, biological and geochemical processes relevant to atmosphere-ice-ocean exchange processes. Here we compare the growth and decay of first-year ice in the Central Arctic during the winter 2019-2020 to that of landfast first-year ice at Utqia&#289;vik, Alaska, from 1998 to 2016. Ice stratigraphy was similar at both sites with about 15 cm of granular ice on top of columnar ice, with a comparable growth history with a similar maximum ice thickness of 1.6-1.7 m. We aggregated the sea-ice bulk salinity and temperature profiles using a degree-day approach, and examined brine and freshwater fluxes at lower and upper interfaces of the ice, respectively. Preliminary results show lower sea-ice bulk salinity during the growth season and greater desalination at the ice surface during the melt season at the MOSAiC floe in comparison to Utqia&#289;vik.

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Physical controls on the storage of methane in landfast sea ice

The Cryosphere ◽

10.5194/tc-8-1019-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 1019-1029 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

J. Zhou ◽

J.-L. Tison ◽

G. Carnat ◽

N.-X. Geilfus ◽

B. Delille

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Bubble Formation ◽

Gas Bubble ◽

Physical Processes ◽

Ice Melt ◽

Physical Controls ◽

The Difference ◽

Landfast Sea Ice ◽

Ice Water ◽

Brine Concentration

Abstract. We report on methane (CH4) dynamics in landfast sea ice, brine and under-ice seawater at Barrow in 2009. The CH4 concentrations in under-ice water ranged from 25.9 to 116.4 nmol L−1sw, indicating a supersaturation of 700 to 3100% relative to the atmosphere. In comparison, the CH4 concentrations in sea ice ranged from 3.4 to 17.2 nmol L−1ice and the deduced CH4 concentrations in brine from 13.2 to 677.7 nmol L−1brine. We investigated the processes underlying the difference in CH4 concentrations between sea ice, brine and under-ice water and suggest that biological controls on the storage of CH4 in ice were minor in comparison to the physical controls. Two physical processes regulated the storage of CH4 in our landfast ice samples: bubble formation within the ice and sea ice permeability. Gas bubble formation due to brine concentration and solubility decrease favoured the accumulation of CH4 in the ice at the beginning of ice growth. CH4 retention in sea ice was then twice as efficient as that of salt; this also explains the overall higher CH4 concentrations in brine than in the under-ice water. As sea ice thickened, gas bubble formation became less efficient, CH4 was then mainly trapped in the dissolved state. The increase of sea ice permeability during ice melt marked the end of CH4 storage.

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Synoptic Conditions, Clouds, and Sea Ice Melt Onset in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seasonal Ice Zone

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-16-0887.1 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (17) ◽

pp. 6999-7016 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Zheng Liu ◽

Axel Schweiger

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Numerical Models ◽

Precipitable Water ◽

Reanalysis Data ◽

Cloud Microphysics ◽

Low Level ◽

Ice Melt ◽

Synoptic Conditions ◽

High Level ◽

Seasonal Ice Zone

Cloud response to synoptic conditions over the Beaufort and Chukchi seasonal ice zone is examined. Four synoptic states with distinct thermodynamic and dynamic signatures are identified using ERA-Interim reanalysis data from 2000 to 2014. CloudSat and CALIPSO observations suggest control of clouds by synoptic states. Warm continental air advection is associated with the fewest low-level clouds, while cold air advection generates the most low-level clouds. Low-level clouds are related to lower-tropospheric stability and both are regulated by synoptic conditions. High-level clouds are associated with humidity and vertical motions in the upper atmosphere. Observed cloud vertical and spatial variability is reproduced well in ERA-Interim, but winter low-level cloud fraction is overestimated. This suggests that synoptic conditions constrain the spatial extent of clouds through the atmospheric structure, while the parameterizations for cloud microphysics and boundary layer physics are critical for the life cycle of clouds in numerical models. Sea ice melt onset is related to synoptic conditions. Melt onsets occur more frequently and earlier with warm air advection. Synoptic conditions with the highest temperatures and precipitable water are most favorable for melt onsets even though fewer low-level clouds are associated with these conditions.

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Export of calcium carbonate corrosive waters from the East Siberian Sea

10.5194/bg-2016-478 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Leif G. Anderson ◽

Jörgen Ek ◽

Ylva Ericson ◽

Christoph Humborg ◽

Igor Semiletov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Calcium Carbonate ◽

Sea Ice ◽

North Atlantic Ocean ◽

The Arctic ◽

High Pco2 ◽

Low Oxygen ◽

Saturation State ◽

Ice Melt ◽

The North ◽

Transformation Of Organic Matter

Abstract. The Siberian Shelf Seas are areas of extensive biogeochemical transformation of organic matter, both of marine and terrestrial origin. This in combination with brine production from sea ice formation results in a cold bottom water of relative high salinity and partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2). Data from the SWERUS-C3 expedition compiled on the icebreaker Oden in July to September 2014 show the distribution of such waters at the outer shelf, as well as their export into the deep central Arctic basins. Very high pCO2 water, up to close to 1000 µatm, was observed associated with high nutrients and low oxygen concentrations. Consequently the saturation state of calcium carbonate was low, down to less than 0.8 for calcite and 0.5 for aragonite. Waters undersaturated in aragonite were also observed in the surface in waters at equilibrium with atmospheric CO2, however, at these conditions the cause of under-saturation was low salinity from river runoff and/or sea ice melt. The calcium carbonate corrosive water was observed all along the continental margin and well out into the deep Makarov and Canada Basins at a depth from about 50 m depth in the west to about 150 m in the east. These waters of low aragonite saturation state are traced in historic data to the Canada Basin and in the waters flowing out of the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and in the western Fram Strait, thus potentially impacting the marine life in the North Atlantic Ocean.

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Sea ice melt pond fraction estimation from dual-polarisation C-band SAR – Part 2: Scaling in situ to Radarsat-2

The Cryosphere Discussions ◽

10.5194/tcd-8-845-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 845-885 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

R. K. Scharien ◽

K. Hochheim ◽

J. Landy ◽

D. G. Barber

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Large Scale ◽

Temporal Frequency ◽

Model Performance ◽

Free Water ◽

Light Transmittance ◽

The Arctic ◽

Ice Melt ◽

Melt Pond

Abstract. Observed changes in the Arctic have motivated efforts to understand and model its components as an integrated and adaptive system at increasingly finer scales. Sea ice melt pond fraction, an important summer sea ice component affecting surface albedo and light transmittance across the ocean-sea ice–atmosphere interface, is inadequately parameterized in models due to a lack of large scale observations. In this paper, results from a multi-scale remote sensing program dedicated to the retrieval of pond fraction from satellite C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) are detailed. The study was conducted on first-year sea (FY) ice in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago during the summer melt period in June 2012. Approaches to retrieve the subscale FY ice pond fraction from mixed pixels in RADARSAT-2 imagery, using in situ, surface scattering theory, and image data are assessed. Each algorithm exploits the dominant effect of high dielectric free-water ponds on the VV/HH polarisation ratio (PR) at moderate to high incidence angles (about 40° and above). Algorithms are applied to four images corresponding to discrete stages of the seasonal pond evolutionary cycle, and model performance is assessed using coincident pond fraction measurements from partitioned aerial photos. A RMSE of 0.07, across a pond fraction range of 0.10 to 0.70, is achieved during intermediate and late seasonal stages. Weak model performance is attributed to wet snow (pond formation) and synoptically driven pond freezing events (all stages), though PR has utility for identification of these events when considered in time series context. Results demonstrate the potential of wide-swath, dual-polarisation, SAR for large-scale observations of pond fraction with temporal frequency suitable for process-scale studies and improvements to model parameterizations.

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