Thermodynamic model of melt pond and its application during summer of 2010 in the central Arctic Ocean

Abstract

A one-dimensional thermodynamic model of melt pond is established in this paper. The observation data measured in the summer of 2010 by the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE-2010) are used to partially parameterize equations and to validate results of the model. About 85% of the incident solar radiation passed through the melt pond surface, and some of it was released in the form of sensible and latent heat. However, the released energy was very little (about 15%), compared to the incident solar radiation. More than 58.6% of the incident energy was absorbed by melt pond water, which caused pond-covered ice melting and variation of pond water temperature. The simulated temperature of melt pond had a diurnal variation and its value ranged between 0.0°C and 0.3°C. The melting rate of upper pond-covered ice is estimated to be around two times faster than snow-covered ice. At same time, the change of melting rate was relatively quick for pond depth less than 0.4 m, while the melting rate kept relatively constant (about 1.0 cm/d) for pond depth greater than 0.4 m.