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Crucial physical characteristics of sea ice in the Arctic section of 143°–180°W during August and early September 2008

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Abstract

Sea-ice physical characteristics were investigated in the Arctic section of 143°–180°W during August and early September 2008. Ship-based observations show that both the sea-ice thickness and concentration recorded during southward navigation from 30 August to 6 September were remarkably less than those recorded during northward navigation from 3 to 30 August, especially at low latitudes. Accordingly, the marginal ice zone moved from about 74.0°N to about 79.5°N from mid-August to early September. Melt-pond coverage increased with increasing latitude, peaking at 84.4°N, where about 27% of ice was covered by melt ponds. Above this latitude, melt-pond coverage decreased evidently as the ice at high latitudes experienced a relatively short melt season and commenced its growth stage by the end of August. Regional mean ice thickness increased from 0.8 (±0.5) m at 75.0°N to 1.5 (±0.4) m at 85.0°N along the northward navigation while it decreased rapidly to 0.6 (±0.3) m at 78.0°N along the southward navigation. Because of relatively low ice concentration and thin ice in the investigated Arctic sector, both the short-term ice stations and ice camp could only be set up over multiyear sea ice. Observations of ice properties based on ice cores collected at the short-term ice stations and the ice camp show that all investigated floes were essentially isothermal with high temperature and porosity, and low density and salinity. Most ices had salinity below 2 and mean density of 800–860 kg/m3. Significant ice loss in the investigated Arctic sector during the last 15 a can be identified by comparison with the previous observations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polar Research Institute of China, State Oceanic Administration, Shanghai, 200136, China

    Ruibo Lei & Na Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Zhijun Li & Peng Lu

  3. Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 503, Helsinki, FI-00101, Finland

    Bin Cheng

Authors
  1. Ruibo Lei
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  2. Zhijun Li
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  3. Na Li
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  4. Peng Lu
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  5. Bin Cheng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruibo Lei.

Additional information

Foundation items: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 40930848 and 41106160; the State Oceanic Administration of China under contract No. 2012240; the Norwegian Research Council under contract No. 193592/S30; the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under contract No. 20100470400.

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Lei, R., Li, Z., Li, N. et al. Crucial physical characteristics of sea ice in the Arctic section of 143°–180°W during August and early September 2008. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 31, 65–75 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-012-0221-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-012-0221-0

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