Turbulent heat exchange characterisics in sea ice ridges areas

Abstract

The studies of the features of turbulent heat exchange were carried out for the first time in domestic practice near ice ridge areas of sea ice using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as part of the expedition "Transarktika-2019" onboard the R/V “Akademik Tryoshnikov”. An original measuring complex designed in AARI, was used to assess the characteristics of the ice surface (ice ridges, flat areas of ice). This made it possible to obtain comparative estimates of the albedo and surface temperature of different morphometric structures of the sections of the ice field, where the expedition's ice camp was organized. Measurements of air temperature and wind velocity were carried in the atmospheric surface layer on flat snow-covered areas of sea ice out from the windward and leeward sides of the ridge in parallel with the UAV flights. As a result of the experiments, it was found that the ice ridges areas have a lower albedo and surface temperature compared to neighboring areas of flat sea ice on average. Turbulent heat fluxes from the windward side of the hummock ridge exceed similar values recorded from the leeward side under conditions of unstable stratification in the atmospheric surface layer and exceed the fluxes calculated for conditions of flat ice on the sections with absence of hummocks, on average. In total, the nature and intensity of turbulent heat conduction in the ice ridges area differs from the analogous values observed on the flat sea ice cover. It is possible that the assessment of heat conduction with the atmosphere requires a certain revision, against the background (within the conditions) of thin first-year ice increasing which is more prone to hummocking than multi-year ice.