A physical model for predicting the thermal conductivity of brine-wetted snow

Abstract

Recent measurements by Crocker (1984) have shown that the snowcover overlying young sea ice contains large quantities of salt (concentrations as high as 100 ppt). The influence of the salt, which is incorporated into the snowpack in the form of brine, on the thermal conductivity of the snow is analysed using a modified form of the physical thermal conductivity model developed by Pitman and Zuckerman (1967). The new model indicates that at snow densities commonly encountered in young sea ice, the presence of the brine increases the thermal conductivity of the snow by up to 50%. When the thermal conductivities predicted by the model are input into an ice-growth model, better association between observed and predicted ice growth (on Resolute Passage, North West Territories, 1982) is obtained than with any of the empirical thermal conductivity formulae tested.