Sea ice thickness and the distribution contributing to the mass balance of the Southern Ocean
Date
2010
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Although sea ice concentration, extent, and type can be measured with acceptable accuracy by satellite or airborne remote sensing techniques, sea ice thickness measurements are difficult to obtain accurately, even in situ. Modeling sea ice volume and associated transport requires input data for ice motion, as well as for the distribution of sea ice thickness. There is a need to develop new sea ice models driven by the best available data. The majority of sea ice thickness measurements in the Southern Ocean are derived from drill holes, and more recently upward looking sonar and electromagnetic methods, but these data points are sparse. The most comprehensive sea ice thickness dataset for Antarctic sea ice available to date is the Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) program, which includes 23,373 ship-based observations collected over two decades; however, this dataset has spatial and temporal gaps. This thesis uses the ice stage of development records from National/Naval Ice Center (NIC) operational ice charts as a proxy for sea ice thickness from four years (1995-1998). From the sea ice information within the ice charts, ice thickness and volume are derived to produce model-input-ready Southern Ocean sea ice thickness distributions on multiple temporal and regional scales. Evaluation of the basin-wide thickness distribution includes analysis of multiple sea ice thickness calculation methods and an examination of the seasonal and regional patterns of sea ice distribution.