ALBERT

Description: Wind-driven coastal polynyas in the polar oceans are recognized as regions of extensive new ice formation in the cold season. Hence, they may play an increasing role in the uncertain future of the sea-ice budget in the polar oceans. The Laptev Sea polynyas in the Siberian Arctic are well recognized as being significant ice producers and might gain special attention with regards to ice volume changes in the Arctic. Long-term monitoring and characterization of these polynyas require stable methods to detect the area of open water and the growth, thickness, and evolution of thin ice. We examine different parameters and methods to observe polynya area and thin ice thickness during a prominent polynya event in the Laptev Sea in April 2008. These are derived from visible, infrared, and microwave satellite data. Airborne electromagnetic ice thickness measurements with high spatial resolution and aerial photography taken across the polynya are used to assess the feasibility of the methods for long-term and large-scale polynya monitoring within this area. Our results indicate that in the narrow flaw polynyas of the Laptev Sea the coarse resolution of commonly used microwave channel combinations provokes sources of error through mixed signals at the fast- and pack-ice edges. Polynya monitoring results can be significantly improved using enhanced resolution data products. This implies that previously suggested methods for the retrieval of polynya area, thin ice thickness, and ice production are not transferable in space and time. Data as well as method parameterizations have to be chosen carefully to avoid large errors due to regional peculiarities.

Description: Large-scale sea-ice thickness and surface property data were obtained in three summers and in three different sea-ice regimes in the Arctic Trans-Polar Drift (TPD) by means of helicopter electromagnetic sounding. Distribution functions P of sea-ice thickness and of the height, spacing, and density of sails were analyzed to characterize ice regimes of different ages and deformations. Results suggest that modal ice thickness is affected by the age of a sea-ice regime and that the degree of deformation is represented by the shape of P. Mean thickness changes with both age and deformation. Standard error calculations showed that representative mean and modal thickness could be obtained with transect lengths of 15 km and 50 km, respectively, in less deformed ice regimes such as those around the North Pole. In heavier deformed ice regimes closer to Greenland, 100 km transects were necessary for mean thickness determination and a representative modal thickness could not be obtained at all. Mean sail height did not differ between ice regimes, whereas sail density increased with the degree of deformation. Furthermore, the fraction of level ice, open melt ponds, and open water along the transects were determined. Although overall ice thickness in the central TPD was 50% thinner in 2007 than in 2001, first-year ice (FYI) was not significantly thinner in 2007 than FYI in 2001, with a decrease of only 0.3 m. Thinner FYI in 2007 only occurred close to the sea-ice edge, where open water covered more than 10% of the surface. Melt pond coverage retrieved from laser measurements was 15% in both the 2004 MYI regime and the 2007 FYI regime.