La capacité portante à court terme de la glace de mer colonnaire annuelle

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Murat ◽  
R. Tinawi

This paper deals with the bearing capacity of sea ice covers taking into consideration the nonhomogeneity of the material, which is primarily due to variations in temperature and salinity across the thickness. The study is limited to the evaluation of short-term loads that would cause cracking in the ice cover. The general method for evaluation of such loads is fully developed and simplified formulae are proposed for a given surface temperature and ice thickness. Key words: bearing capacity, sea ice.


2002 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 420-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefino C. Comiso

AbstractCo-registered and continuous satellite data of sea-ice concentrations and surface ice temperatures from 1981 to 2000 are analyzed to evaluate relationships between these two critical climate parameters and what they reveal in tandem about the changing Arctic environment. During the 19 year period, the Arctic ice extent and actual ice area are shown to be declining at a rate of –2.0±0.3% dec –1 and 3.1 ±0.4% dec–1, respectively, while the surface ice temperature has been increasing at 0.4 ±0.2 K dec–1, where dec is decade. The extent and area of the perennial ice cover, estimated from summer minimum values, have been declining at a much faster rate of –6.7±2.4% dec–1 and –8.3±2.4% dec–1, respectively, while the surface ice temperature has been increasing at 0.9 ±0.6K dec–1. This unusual rate of decline is accompanied by a very variable summer ice cover in the 1990s compared to the 1980s, suggesting increases in the fraction of the relatively thin second-year, and hence a thinning in the perennial, ice cover during the last two decades. Yearly anomaly maps show that the ice-concentration anomalies are predominantly positive in the 1980s and negative in the 1990s, while surface temperature anomalies were mainly negative in the 1980s and positive in the 1990s. The yearly ice-concentration and surface temperature anomalies are highly correlated, indicating a strong link especially in the seasonal region and around the periphery of the perennial ice cover. The surface temperature anomalies also reveal the spatial scope of each warming (or cooling) phenomenon that usually extends beyond the boundaries of the sea-ice cover.



1966 ◽  
Vol 6 (45) ◽  
pp. 439-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Schwerdtfeger

The time separation between related extremes in the values of surface temperature and growth rate of a floating ice cover are shown to depend on the mean ice temperature and thickness. A quantity termed the lag coefficient is introduced for which observations from Churchill, Hudson Bay, and Davis, Antarctica, suggest a dependence on temperature but not on geography.



1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (73) ◽  
pp. 277-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambrose O. Poulin

Abstract Thermal infrared sensing can provide much information about sea ice, and some of the physical conditions associated with sea ice suggest that surface temperature may be a good indicator of ice thickness. However, steady-state heat-flow calculations suggest that the variable thickness of the snow-cover and its low. variable thermal conductivity would preclude the use of surface temperature alone as a suitable indicator of ice thickness. Measurements of surface temperature, snow depth, and ice thickness suggest that, in an area of relatively uniform ice thickness, surface temperature might be useful as an indicator of snow depth if some surface data can be obtained.



1975 ◽  
Vol 15 (73) ◽  
pp. 277-283
Author(s):  
Ambrose O. Poulin

AbstractThermal infrared sensing can provide much information about sea ice, and some of the physical conditions associated with sea ice suggest that surface temperature may be a good indicator of ice thickness. However, steady-state heat-flow calculations suggest that the variable thickness of the snow-cover and its low. variable thermal conductivity would preclude the use of surface temperature alone as a suitable indicator of ice thickness. Measurements of surface temperature, snow depth, and ice thickness suggest that, in an area of relatively uniform ice thickness, surface temperature might be useful as an indicator of snow depth if some surface data can be obtained.



2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 725-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne de Vernal ◽  
Claude Hillaire-Marcel ◽  
Jean-Louis Turon ◽  
Jens Matthiessen

Past sea-surface conditions over the northern North Atlantic during the last glacial maximum were examined from the study of 61 deep-sea cores. The last glacial maximum time slice studied here corresponds to an interval between Heinrich layers H2 and H1, and spanning about 20-16 ka on a 14C time scale. Transfer functions based on dinocyst assemblages were used to reconstruct sea-surface temperature, salinity, and sea-ice cover. The results illustrate extensive sea-ice cover along the eastern Canadian margins and sea-ice spreading, only during winter, over most of the northern North Atlantic. On the whole, much colder winter prevailed, despite relatively mild conditions in August (10-15°C at most offshore sites), thus suggesting a larger seasonal contrast of temperatures than today. Lower salinity than at present is reconstructed, especially along the eastern Canadian and Scandinavian margins, likely because of meltwater supply from the surrounding ice sheets. These reconstructions contrast with those established by CLIMAP on the basis of planktonic foraminifera. These differences are discussed with reference to the stratigraphical frame of the last glacial maximum, which was not the coldest phase of the last glacial stage. The respective significance of dinocyst and foraminifer records is also examined in terms of the thermohaline characteristics of surface waters and the vertical structure of upper water masses, which was apparently much more stratified than at present in the northern North Atlantic, thus preventing deep-water formation.



2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 2251-2267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefino C. Comiso ◽  
Robert A. Gersten ◽  
Larry V. Stock ◽  
John Turner ◽  
Gay J. Perez ◽  
...  

Abstract The Antarctic sea ice extent has been slowly increasing contrary to expected trends due to global warming and results from coupled climate models. After a record high extent in 2012 the extent was even higher in 2014 when the magnitude exceeded 20 × 106 km2 for the first time during the satellite era. The positive trend is confirmed with newly reprocessed sea ice data that addressed inconsistency issues in the time series. The variability in sea ice extent and ice area was studied alongside surface ice temperature for the 34-yr period starting in 1981, and the results of the analysis show a strong correlation of −0.94 during the growth season and −0.86 during the melt season. The correlation coefficients are even stronger with a one-month lag in surface temperature at −0.96 during the growth season and −0.98 during the melt season, suggesting that the trend in sea ice cover is strongly influenced by the trend in surface temperature. The correlation with atmospheric circulation as represented by the southern annular mode (SAM) index appears to be relatively weak. A case study comparing the record high in 2014 with a relatively low ice extent in 2015 also shows strong sensitivity to changes in surface temperature. The results suggest that the positive trend is a consequence of the spatial variability of global trends in surface temperature and that the ability of current climate models to forecast sea ice trend can be improved through better performance in reproducing observed surface temperatures in the Antarctic region.



2001 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 457-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefino C. Comiso

AbstractRecent observations of a decreasing ice extent and a possible thinning of the ice cover in the Arctic make it imperative that detailed studies of the current Arctic environment are made, especially since the region is known to be highly sensitive to a potential change in climate. A continuous dataset of microwave, thermal infrared and visible satellite data has been analyzed for the first time to concurrently study in spatial detail the variability of the sea-ice cover, surface temperature, albedo and cloud statistics in the region from 1987 to 1998. Large warming anomalies during the last four years (i.e. 1995−98) are indeed apparent and spatially more extensive than previous years. The largest surface temperature anomaly occurred in 1998, but this was confined mainly to the western Arctic and the North American continent, while cooling occurred in other areas. The albedo anomalies show good coherence with the sea-ice concentration anomalies except in the central region, where periodic changes in albedo are observed, indicative of interannual changes in duration and areal extent of melt ponding and snow-free ice cover. The cloud-cover anomalies are more difficult to interpret, but are shown to be well correlated with the expected warming effects of clouds on the sea-ice surface. The results from trend analyses of the data are consistent with a general warming trend and an ice-cover retreat that appear to be even larger during the last dozen years than those previously reported.



2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 993-1012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Zhou ◽  
Shiming Xu ◽  
Jiping Liu ◽  
Bin Wang

Abstract. The accurate knowledge of sea ice parameters, including sea ice thickness and snow depth over the sea ice cover, is key to both climate studies and data assimilation in operational forecasts. Large-scale active and passive remote sensing is the basis for the estimation of these parameters. In traditional altimetry or the retrieval of snow depth with passive microwave remote sensing, although the sea ice thickness and the snow depth are closely related, the retrieval of one parameter is usually carried out under assumptions over the other. For example, climatological snow depth data or as derived from reanalyses contain large or unconstrained uncertainty, which result in large uncertainty in the derived sea ice thickness and volume. In this study, we explore the potential of combined retrieval of both sea ice thickness and snow depth using the concurrent active altimetry and passive microwave remote sensing of the sea ice cover. Specifically, laser altimetry and L-band passive remote sensing data are combined using two forward models: the L-band radiation model and the isostatic relationship based on buoyancy model. Since the laser altimetry usually features much higher spatial resolution than L-band data from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, there is potentially covariability between the observed snow freeboard by altimetry and the retrieval target of snow depth on the spatial scale of altimetry samples. Statistically significant correlation is discovered based on high-resolution observations from Operation IceBridge (OIB), and with a nonlinear fitting the covariability is incorporated in the retrieval algorithm. By using fitting parameters derived from large-scale surveys, the retrievability is greatly improved compared with the retrieval that assumes flat snow cover (i.e., no covariability). Verifications with OIB data show good match between the observed and the retrieved parameters, including both sea ice thickness and snow depth. With detailed analysis, we show that the error of the retrieval mainly arises from the difference between the modeled and the observed (SMOS) L-band brightness temperature (TB). The narrow swath and the limited coverage of the sea ice cover by altimetry is the potential source of error associated with the modeling of L-band TB and retrieval. The proposed retrieval methodology can be applied to the basin-scale retrieval of sea ice thickness and snow depth, using concurrent passive remote sensing and active laser altimetry based on satellites such as ICESat-2 and WCOM.



Author(s):  
Josefino C. Comiso

The trends in the sea ice cover in the two hemispheres have been observed to be asymmetric with the rate of change in the Arctic being negative at −3.8 % per decade while that of the Antarctic is positive at 1.7 % per decade. These observations are confirmed in this study through analyses of a more robust data set that has been enhanced for better consistency and updated for improved statistics. With reports of anthropogenic global warming such phenomenon appears physically counter intuitive but trend studies of surface temperature over the same time period show the occurrence of a similar asymmetry. Satellite surface temperature data show that while global warming is strong and dominant in the Arctic, it is relatively minor in the Antarctic with the trends in sea ice covered areas and surrounding ice free regions observed to be even negative. A strong correlation of ice extent with surface temperature is observed, especially during the growth season, and the observed trends in the sea ice cover are coherent with the trends in surface temperature. The trend of global averages of the ice cover is negative but modest and is consistent and compatible with the positive but modest trend in global surface temperature. A continuation of the trend would mean the disappearance of summer ice by the end of the century but modelling projections indicate that the summer ice could be salvaged if anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are kept constant at the current level.



2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Zhou ◽  
Shiming Xu ◽  
Jiping Liu ◽  
Bin Wang

Abstract. The accurate knowledge of sea ice parameters, including sea ice thickness and snow depth over the sea ice cover, are key to both climate studies and data assimilation in operational forecasts. Large-scale active and passive remote sensing is the basis for the estimation of these parameters. In traditional altimetry or the retrieval of snow depth with passive microwave sensing, although the sea ice thickness and the snow depth are closely related, the retrieval of one parameter is usually carried out under assumptions over the other. For example, climatological snow depth data or as derived from reanalyses contain large or unconstrained uncertainty, which result in large uncertainty in the derived sea ice thickness and volume. In this study, we explore the potential of combined retrieval of both sea ice thickness and snow depth using the concurrent active altimetry and passive microwave remote sensing of the sea ice cover. Specifically, laser altimetry and L-band passive remote sensing data are combined using two forward models: the L-band radiation model and the isostatic relationship based on buoyancy model. Since the laser altimetry usually features much higher spatial resolution than L-band data from Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, there is potentially covariability between the observed snow freeboard by altimetry and the retrieval target of snow depth on the spatial scale of altimetry samples. Statistically significant correlation is discovered based on high-resolution observations from Operation IceBridge (OIB), and with a nonlinear fitting the covariability is incorporated in the retrieval algorithm. By using fitting parameters derived from large-scale surveys, the retrievability is greatly improved, as compared with the retrieval that assumes flat snow cover (i.e., no covariability). Verifications with OIB data show good match between the observed and the retrieved parameters, including both sea ice thickness and snow depth. With detailed analysis, we show that the error of the retrieval mainly arises from the difference between the modeled and the observed (SMOS) L-band brightness temperature (TB). The narrow swath and the limited coverage of the sea ice cover by altimetry, as well the uncertainty associated with the radiation model are potential sources of error. The proposed retrieval algorithm (or methodology) can be applied to the basin-scale retrieval of sea ice thickness and snow depth, using concurrent passive remote sensing and active laser altimetry based on satellites such as ICESat and ICESat-2.



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