Responses of sub-ice platelet layer thickening rate and frazil-ice concentration to variations in ice-shelf water supercooling in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
<p>Persistent outflow of supercooled ice-shelf water (ISW) from beneath McMurdo Ice Shelf creates a rapidly growing sub-ice platelet layer (SIPL) with a unique crystallographic structure under the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A vertically modified frazil-ice-laden ISW plume model that...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2019-01-01
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| Series: | The Cryosphere |
| Online Access: | https://www.the-cryosphere.net/13/265/2019/tc-13-265-2019.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Persistent outflow of supercooled ice-shelf water (ISW)
from beneath McMurdo Ice Shelf creates a rapidly growing sub-ice platelet
layer (SIPL) with a unique crystallographic structure under the sea ice in
McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A vertically modified frazil-ice-laden ISW plume
model that encapsulates the combined non-linear effects of the vertical
distributions of supercooling and frazil concentration on frazil-ice growth
is applied to McMurdo Sound and is shown to reproduce the observed ISW
supercooling and SIPL distributions. Using this model, the dependence of
the SIPL thickening rate and depth-averaged frazil-ice concentration on ISW
supercooling in McMurdo Sound is investigated and found to be predominantly
controlled by the vertical distribution of frazil concentration. The complex
dependence on frazil concentration highlights the need to improve frazil-ice
observations within the sea-ice–ocean boundary layer in McMurdo Sound.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1994-0416 1994-0424 |