Turbulent heat flux in the upper ocean under sea ice

Abstract

Turbulence data from three Arctic drift station experiments demonstrate features of turbulent heat transfer in the oceanic boundary layer. Time series analysis of several w′T′ records shows that heat and momentum flux occur at nearly the same scales, typically by turbulent eddies of the order of 10–20 m in horizontal extent and a few meters in vertical extent. Probability distribution functions of w′T′ have large skewness and kurtosis, where the latter confirms that most of the flux occurs in intermittent “events” with positive and negative excursions an order of magnitude larger than the mean value. An estimate of the eddy heat diffusivity in the outer (Ekman) part of the boundary layer, based on measured heat flux and temperature gradient during a diurnal tidal cycle over the Yermak Plateau slope north of Fram Strait, agrees reasonably well with the eddy viscosity, with values as high as 0.15 m2 s−1. An analysis of measurements made near the ice‐ocean interface at the three stations shows that heat flux increases with both temperature elevation above freezing and with friction velocity at the interface. It also reveals a surprising uniformity in parameters describing the heat and mass transfer: e.g., the thickness of the “transition sublayer” (from a modified version of the Yaglom‐Kader theory) is about 10 cm at all three sites, despite nearly a fivefold difference in the under‐ice roughness z0, which ranges from approximately 2 to 9 cm. A much simplified model for heat and mass transfer at the ice‐ocean interface, suggested by the relative uniformity of the heat transfer coefficients at the three sites, is outlined.