Rate Determining Processes of Sea Ice Growth

Abstract

We have derived an analytical expression for the growth rate of sea ice by taking account of the processes relevant to the growth, eg heat conduction, diffusion of salt molecules, radiation, sensible heat transport, evaporation and so on. We discuss the role of each process as rate determining processes under various environmental conditions. It is shown that because of coupling of salt diffusion and heat conduction, the growth rate feeds back to the heat flux Qw from water to ice which controls the growth rate and that Qw decreases with the thickness I of sea ice, even if the environmental conditions are kept constant.