Surface Melting Of Ice Research Articles

Spectral albedo of coastal landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay, Antarctica

AbstractThe surface spectral albedo was measured over coastal landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay (off Zhongshan Station), East Antarctica from 5 October to 26 November of 2016. The mean albedo decreased from late-spring to early-summer, mainly responding to the change in surface conditions from dry (phase I) to wet (phase II). The evolution of the albedo was strongly influenced by the surface conditions, with alternation of frequent snowfall events and katabatic wind that induce snow blowing at the surface. The two phases and day-to-day albedo variability were more pronounced in the near-infrared albedo wavelengths than in the visible ones, as the near-infrared photons are more sensitive to snow metamorphism, and to changes in the uppermost millimeters and water content of the surface. The albedo diurnal cycle during clear sky conditions was asymmetric with respect to noon, decreasing from morning to evening over full and patchy snow cover, and decreasing more rapidly in the morning over bare ice. We conclude that snow and ice metamorphism and surface melting dominated over the solar elevation angle dependency in shaping the albedo evolution. However, we realize that more detailed surface observations are needed to clarify and quantify the role of the various surface processes.

Algal photophysiology drives darkening and melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Blooms of Zygnematophycean "glacier algae" lower the bare ice albedo of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), amplifying summer energy absorption at the ice surface and enhancing meltwater runoff from the largest cryospheric contributor to contemporary sea-level rise. Here, we provide a step change in current understanding of algal-driven ice sheet darkening through quantification of the photophysiological mechanisms that allow glacier algae to thrive on and darken the bare ice surface. Significant secondary phenolic pigmentation (11 times the cellular content of chlorophyll a) enables glacier algae to tolerate extreme irradiance (up to ∼4,000 µmol photons⋅m-2⋅s-1) while simultaneously repurposing captured ultraviolet and short-wave radiation for melt generation. Total cellular energy absorption is increased 50-fold by phenolic pigmentation, while glacier algal chloroplasts positioned beneath shading pigments remain low-light-adapted (Ek ∼46 µmol photons⋅m-2⋅s-1) and dependent upon typical nonphotochemical quenching mechanisms for photoregulation. On the GrIS, glacier algae direct only ∼1 to 2.4% of incident energy to photochemistry versus 48 to 65% to ice surface melting, contributing an additional ∼1.86 cm water equivalent surface melt per day in patches of high algal abundance (∼104 cells⋅mL-1). At the regional scale, surface darkening is driven by the direct and indirect impacts of glacier algae on ice albedo, with a significant negative relationship between broadband albedo (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [MODIS]) and glacier algal biomass (R2 = 0.75, n = 149), indicating that up to 75% of the variability in albedo across the southwestern GrIS may be attributable to the presence of glacier algae.

Heat budget analysis during the ice-melting season in the Chukchi Sea based on a model simulation

Rapid changes of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea are substantially influencing the marine ecosystem and carbon cycling in the region. In this study, sea ice variations during 1994–2015 are simulated with a coupled ocean and sea ice model covering the North Atlantic-North Pacific-Arctic Oceans (NAPA) with a nominal horizontal resolution of 1/4° in latitude/longitude. The model is based on version 3.6 of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) and version 3 of Louvain-la-Neuve Sea Ice Model (LIM). The analysis is focused on the heat budget of sea ice and sea water in the Chukchi Sea during the ice-melting season, defined as the duration with positive net water flux from sea ice to sea water. Averaged over 1994–2015, sea ice melting in the Chukchi Sea occurs from mid-May to mid-October. The relative contributions of melting at the surface and bottom of the sea ice vary spatially in relationship to the variations of sea ice concentration, in particular from June to August when the ice melts relatively rapidly. The rate of melting at the ice surface is much higher in areas with ice concentration greater than 80%, while ice bottom melting is more important elsewhere. Bottom melting accounts for 68% of the total seasonal ice loss. Further analysis of the heat budget of the sea water column reveals the contributions of net heat flux at sea water surface (including open waters, ice leads, and under ice covered areas) and Pacific inflow heat flux to ice bottom melting. First, during the entire ice-melting season, the Pacific inflow heat flux contributes ~67% of the total heat input to the sea water in the study area. Among the total heat flux input to the sea water, about 58% is used to heat the sea water, 28% is used to melt ice bottom, and 14% is transported downstream. Secondly, during the early and peak stages of ice melting (from mid-May to early August), net heat flux at sea water surface makes the dominant contribution to ice bottom melting. During the late and final stages (from mid-August to mid-October), the Pacific inflow heat flux plays a leading role and continues to provide heat during the early freezing stage, acts to slow down the freezing rate, and extends the ice-free season. Finally, ~60% of the net heat flux at ice surface is used for ice surface melting. Very little of the net heat flux at ice surface could penetrate the sea ice into the sea water for ice bottom melting. During the ice-melting season of 1994–2015, the time-mean and standard deviation of interannual variations of the following three variables in the Chukchi Sea are: (3.16 ±0.67)×1020 J for the heat content variation in the Chukchi Sea, (3.65±0.69)×1020 J for the Pacific inflow heat flux, and (1.81 ±0.46)×1020 J for the net heat flux at sea water surface. Interannual variation of heat flux causing ice bottom melting is negatively correlated with the heat content variation in the Chukchi Sea ( R =−0.62; P R =0.96; P R =1.0; P 6.06×1018 J per year, while the heat content variation in the Chukchi Sea has been increasing by 6.03×1018 J per year. Overall, the present model results suggest that variations upstream of the Pacific inflow play an important role in variations of sea ice area in the Chukchi Sea.

West Antarctic surface melt triggered by atmospheric rivers

Recent major melting events in West Antarctica have raised concerns about a potential hydrofracturing and ice shelf instability. These events often share common forcings of surface melt-like anomalous radiative fluxes, turbulent heat fluxes and fohn winds. Using an atmospheric river detection algorithm developed for Antarctica together with surface melt datasets, we produced a climatology of atmospheric river-related surface melting around Antarctica and show that atmospheric rivers are associated with a large percentage of these surface melt events. Despite their rarity (around 12 events per year in West Antarctica), atmospheric rivers are associated with around 40% of the total summer meltwater generated across the Ross Ice Shelf to nearly 100% in the higher elevation Marie Byrd Land and 40–80% of the total winter meltwater generated on the Wilkins, Bach, George IV and Larsen B and C ice shelves. These events were all related to high-pressure blocking ridges that directed anomalous poleward moisture transport towards the continent. Major melt events in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet only occur about a couple times per decade, but a 1–2 °C warming and continued increase in atmospheric river activity could increase the melt frequency with consequences for ice shelf stability. Atmospheric rivers associated with blocking events are related to a large fraction of the surface ice melt events in West Antarctica, suggest observation-based analyses of atmospheric dynamics and West Antarctic surface melt.

Observation and thermodynamic modeling of the influence of snow cover on landfast sea ice thickness in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica

The observed snow depth and ice thickness on landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica, were used to determine the role of snow in (a) the annual cycle of sea ice thickness at a fixed location (SIP) where snow usually blows away after snowfall and (b) early summer sea ice thickness within the transportation route surveys (TRS) domain farther from coast, where annual snow accumulation is substantial. The annual mean snow depth and maximum ice thickness had a negative relationship (r = −0.58, p < .05) at SIP, indicating a primary insulation effect of snow on ice thickness. However, in the TRS domain, this effect was negligible because snow contributes to ice thickness. A one-dimensional thermodynamic sea ice model, forced by local weather observations, reproduced the annual cycle of ice thickness at SIP well. During the freeze season, the modeled maximum difference of ice thickness using different snowfall scenarios ranged from 0.53–0.61 m. Snow cover delayed ice surface and ice bottom melting by 45 and 24 days, respectively. The modeled snow ice and superimposed ice accounted for 4–23% and 5–8% of the total maximum ice thickness on an annual basis in the case of initial ice thickness ranging from 0.05 to 2 m, respectively.

Supraglacial Streams and Rivers

Supraglacial meltwater channels that flow on the surfaces of glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves connect ice surface climatology with subglacial processes, ice dynamics, and eustatic sea level changes. Their important role in transferring water and heat across and into ice is currently absent from models of surface mass balance and runoff contributions to global sea level rise. Furthermore, relatively little is known about the genesis, evolution, hydrology, hydraulics, and morphology of supraglacial rivers, and a first synthesis and review of published research on these unusual features is lacking. To that end, we review their ( a) known geographical distribution; ( b) formation, morphology, and sediment transport processes; ( c) hydrology and hydraulics; and ( d) impact on ice sheet surface energy balance, heat exchange, basal conditions, and ice shelf stability. We conclude with a synthesis of key knowledge gaps and provide recommendations for future research. ▪ Supraglacial streams and rivers transfer water and heat on glaciers, connecting climate with subglacial hydrology, ice sliding, and global sea level. ▪ Ice surface melting may expand under a warming climate, darkening the ice surface and further increasing melt.

Testing the impact heating hypothesis for early Mars with a 3-D global climate model

The nature of the early Martian climate has been the subject of debate for decades, with geologic evidence suggesting an environment with prolonged precipitation and flowing liquid water on the surface, while climate models have struggled to reproduce such conditions. In this paper, we test the impact heating hypothesis for warming early Mars as presented in Segura et al. (2008) using a new early Mars version of the NASA Ames Research Center 3-D Mars Global Climate Model. We simulate impacts of asteroids 30-, 50-, and 100- km in diameter into atmospheres possessing 150-mbar, 1-bar, and 2-bar surface pressure conditions, accounting for both radiatively active and radiatively inert water clouds. Based on the scenarios simulated here, we find that the evolution of post-impact initially hot and moist conditions can be characterized in four phases: 1) a rapid radiative cooling phase, 2) a latent heat phase in which cloud formation and the radiative effects of water vapor induce a temporary warm period with significant precipitation, 3) a transition phase in which cooling accelerates due to sublimation at the surface and the lack of available water in the atmosphere for greenhouse warming and in which water vapor begins to contribute less to surface warming than water clouds, and 4) a steady state phase with mean annual surface temperatures below freezing and minimal precipitation. In these post-impact climate scenarios, global average surface temperatures remain above freezing for only 0.043 to 6.25 Mars years, accompanied by 0.23 to 5.8 m of cumulative precipitation (global equivalent) falls during 10 simulated Mars years. Ultimately, periods of warm temperatures and significant precipitation are short-lived and even in the warmest cases, do not support sustained conditions in which valley networks are likely to form in the long run either by liquid precipitation or by seasonal melting of surface ice. Scenarios with high surface pressures and radiatively active clouds experience the longest periods of above-freezing post-impact temperatures and result in the highest mean annual temperatures during the fourth phase (272.8 K in our warmest scenario), highlighting the potential significance of water clouds in the early Martian climate and the importance of their careful physical treatment in models. Future studies addressing sustained warm and wet early Mars conditions should investigate the potential effects of obliquity, initial surface ice distribution, and possible delivery of reducing greenhouse gases on these post-impact climates.

Ice flow variations at Polar Record Glacier, East Antarctica

ABSTRACTRelatively little is known about the physical mechanisms that drive the dynamics of the East Antarctic outlet glaciers. Here we conduct a remote-sensing investigation of the Polar Record Glacier (PRG), East Antarctica to analyze its ice flow acceleration, ice front variations and ice surface melting. Ice flow speeds at PRG increased by up to 15% from 2005 to 2015, with substantial interannual fluctuations. The ice velocities also showed seasonal variations, accelerating by up to 9% between September and January. Multiple mechanisms contribute to the observed seasonal variations: the initial acceleration may result from the lost back-stress provided by the sea ice in the austral spring and the later speedup relate to the surface meltwater that leads to weakened ice shelf and shear margins. The sensitivity of the PRG to oceanic forcing is confirmed by comparing the secular ice velocity increases with ocean temperatures. These measurements suggest that the dynamics of East Antarctic ice shelves are sensitive to melt at both the surface and base, at a range of timescales.

Sediments from Arctic Tide-Water Glaciers Remove Coastal Marine Viruses and Delay Host Infection.

Over the past few decades, the Arctic region has been strongly affected by global warming, leading to increased sea surface temperatures and melting of land and sea ice. Marine terminating (tide-water) glaciers are expected to show higher melting and calving rates, with an increase in the input of fine sediment particles in the coastal marine environment. We experimentally investigated whether marine viruses, which drive microbial interactions and biogeochemical cycling are removed from the water column through adsorption to glacier-delivered fine sediments. Ecologically relevant concentrations of 30, 100 and 200 mg·L−1 sediments were added to filtered lysates of 3 cultured algal viruses and to a natural marine bacterial virus community. Total virus removal increased with sediment concentration whereby the removal rate depended on the virus used (up to 88% for an Arctic algal virus), suggesting a different interaction strength with the sediment. Moreover, we observed that the adsorption of viruses to sediment is a reversible process, and that desorbed viruses are still able to infect their respective hosts. Nonetheless, the addition of sediment to infection experiments with the Arctic prasinovirus MpoV-45T substantially delayed host lysis and the production of progeny viruses. We demonstrate that glacier-derived fine sediments have the potency to alter virus availability and consequently, host population dynamics.

Fluctuation spectroscopy of surface melting of ice with and without impurities.

Water is ubiquitous, and the surface properties of ice have been studied for some time, due to their importance. A liquidlike layer (LLL) is known to exist on ice, below the melting point. We use surface thermal fluctuation spectroscopy to study the LLL, including its thickness, for pure ice, and for ice with impurities. We find that the properties of the LLL are experimentally those of liquid water, with thickness much smaller than previous results. We also find that impurities cause the LLL to be thicker, and quite inhomogeneous, with properties depending on the dopant.

Average cosine coefficient and spectral distribution of the light field under sea ice: Implications for primary production

The Arctic spring phytoplankton bloom has been reported to commence under a melting sea ice cover as transmission of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR; 400–700 nm) suddenly increases with the formation of surface melt ponds. Spatial variability in ice surface characteristics, i.e., snow thickness or melt pond distributions, and subsequent impact on transmitted PAR makes estimating light-limited primary production difficult during this time of year. Added to this difficulty is the interpretation of data from various sensor types, including hyperspectral, multispectral, and PAR-band irradiance sensors, with either cosine-corrected (planar) or spherical (scalar) sensor heads. To quantify the impact of the heterogeneous radiation field under sea ice, spectral irradiance profiles were collected beneath landfast sea ice during the Green Edge ice-camp campaigns in May–June 2015 and June–July 2016. Differences between PAR measurements are described using the downwelling average cosine, μd, a measure of the degree of anisotropy of the downwelling underwater radiation field which, in practice, can be used to convert between downwelling scalar, E0d, and planar, Ed, irradiance. A significantly smallerμd(PAR) was measured prior to snow melt compared to after (0.6 vs. 0.7) when melt ponds covered the ice surface. The impact of the average cosine on primary production estimates, shown in the calculation of depth-integrated daily production, was 16% larger under light-limiting conditions when E0d was used instead of Ed. Under light-saturating conditions, daily production was only 3% larger. Conversion of underwater irradiance data also plays a role in the ratio of total quanta to total energy (EQ/EW, found to be 4.25), which reflects the spectral shape of the under-ice light field. We use these observations to provide factors for converting irradiance measurements between irradiance detector types and units as a function of surface type and depth under sea ice, towards improving primary production estimates.

Brief communication: An ice surface melt scheme including the diurnal cycle of solar radiation

Abstract. We propose a surface melt scheme for glaciated land surfaces, which only requires monthly mean short-wave radiation and temperature as inputs, yet implicitly accounts for the diurnal cycle of short-wave radiation. The scheme is deduced from the energy balance of a daily melt period, which is defined by a minimum solar elevation angle. The scheme yields a better spatial representation of melting than common empirical schemes when applied to the Greenland Ice Sheet, using a 1948–2016 regional climate and snowpack simulation as a reference. The scheme is physically constrained and can be adapted to other regions or time periods.

Friction setup and real-time insights of the contact under controlled cold environment: The KŌRI tribometer for rubber-ice contact application.

A friction setup combining real-time ice-rubber contact visualization, force measurement, and a compact controlled cold environment system was developed in order to investigate ice-rubber contact complex tribological response and the various contributions to friction, such as viscoelastic deformation, ice surface melting, adhesion, ice creep, or quasi-liquid layer effect. The cold system was based on a cryogenic bath circulator, an air convection circuit, and several thermal insulation combinations such as silica aerogel and expanded polystyrene. The KŌRI tribometer allows one to reach negative temperatures until -20 °C and to perform tribological experiments for velocity from 50 μm s-1 to 1 m s-1 under load up to 50 N and to simultaneously measure resultant forces until 30 N and visualize the contact in real-time. In parallel, an ice manufacturing unit and a specific protocol were developed to grow a transparent ice disc with a controlled initial roughness and surface state. Real-time and simultaneous visualization of the ice-rubber contact provides additional data, such as the apparent contact area and the mean size of a real contact spot during friction, after adequate and dedicated image processing. To illustrate the capability of the KŌRI tribometer, rubber-ice friction measurements were performed at -10 °C and the results are presented here, as a function of time and velocity.

Evolution of Staircase Structures in Diffusive Convection.

Diffusive convection (DC) occurs when the vertical stratified density is controlled by two opposing scalar gradients that have distinctly different molecular diffusivities, and the larger- and smaller- diffusivity scalar gradients have negative and positive contributions for the density distribution, respectively. The DC occurs in many natural processes and engineering applications, for example, oceanography, astrophysics and metallurgy. In oceans, one of the most remarkable features of DC is that the vertical temperature and salinity profiles are staircase-like structure, composed of consecutive steps with thick homogeneous convecting layers and relatively thin and high-gradient interfaces. The DC staircases have been observed in many oceans, especially in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, and play an important role on the ocean circulation and climatic change. In the Arctic Ocean, there exist basin-wide and persistent DC staircases in the upper and deep oceans. The DC process has an important effect on diapycnal mixing in the upper ocean and may significantly influence the surface ice-melting. Compared to the limitations of field observations, laboratory experiment shows its unique advantage to effectively examine the dynamic and thermodynamic processes in DC, because the boundary conditions and the controlled parameters can be strictly adjusted. Here, a detailed protocol is described to simulate the evolution process of DC staircase structure, including its generation, development and disappearance, in a rectangular tank filled with stratified saline water. The experimental setup, evolution process, data analysis, and discussion of results are described in detail.

Evaluation of summer passive microwave sea ice concentrations in the Chukchi Sea based on KOMPSAT-5 SAR and numerical weather prediction data

Satellite passive microwave (PM) sensors have observed sea ice in Polar Regions and provided sea ice concentration (SIC) data since the 1970s. SIC has been used as a primary data source for climate change prediction and ship navigation. However, the accuracy of PM SIC is typically low and biased in summer. To provide more accurate information for climatic research and ship navigation, it is necessary to evaluate quantitatively the accuracy of PM SIC and to account for its errors. In this research, we evaluated the SIC data derived from PM measurements using four representative sea ice algorithms: NASA Team (NT), Bootstrap (BT), Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSISAF) hybrid, and Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction STudy (ARTIST) Sea Ice (ASI). Analyses were performed for the Chukchi Sea in summer using KOrean Multi-Purpose SATellite-5 (KOMPSAT-5) Enhanced Wide-swath synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Ice/water maps were generated by binary classification of texture features in the SAR images based on Random Forest, a rule-based machine learning approach. SIC values estimated from the sea ice algorithms showed good correlation with those calculated from the KOMPSAT-5 ice/water maps, but the root mean square error was larger than 10%. SIC values estimated from the algorithms showed different error trends according to the KOMPSAT-5 SIC range. All algorithms overestimated SIC values in open drift ice zones (KOMPSAT-5 SICs ranged from 0% to 15%). In marginal ice zones (SICs ranged from 15% to 80%), the OSISAF SIC values were the least biased compared to those from KOMPSAT-5. The NT algorithm largely underestimated SIC values in marginal ice zones, while the BT and ASI algorithms overestimated them considerably. All algorithms, except for BT, underestimated SIC in consolidated pack ice zones (SICs ranged from 80% to 100%). By analyzing the correlations of biases of SIC from the algorithms with the numerical weather prediction (NWP) data from the European Reanalysis Agency Interim reanalysis, it was found that the overestimation of NT and ASI SICs was largely influenced by atmospheric water vapor content, while the underestimation of NT and OSISAF SICs was owing to ice surface melting. The overestimation of BT SICs was not significantly correlated with the NWP data. The underestimated SIC from the BT and ASI algorithms for high SIC regions might be compensated by the atmospheric water vapor content. The differences in SIC values estimated from each algorithm were due to different sensitivities to atmospheric water vapor content in the regions with KOMPSAT-5 SIC lower than 40% and to ice surface melting in the regions with higher KOMPSAT-5 SIC.

Gully formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: multiple sources of water, temporal sequence and relative importance in gully erosion and deposition processes

Abstract We report on a decade of fieldwork designed to determine the conditions required for erosion of Mars-like gully channels in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica. We have outlined the major factors in the morphological evolution of gullies in the Inland Mixed Zone of the MDV: (1) the distribution of ice sources; (2) the temporal aspects of ice melting; and (3) the relative significance of melting events in gullies. We show that significant erosion of gully channels can be achieved if geometrical and environmental conditions combine to concentrate ice where it can rapidly melt. In contrast, annual melting of surface ice and snow deposits during late-season discharge events contribute to transport of water, but flux rarely surpasses the infiltration capacity of the active layer. These small discharge events do not erode channels of significant width. Even when the flux is sufficient to carve a c. 10–20 cm deep channel during late summer (January–February) runoff, these small channels seldom persist through multiple seasons, because they are seasonally muted and filled with aeolian deposits. We briefly discuss the application of these results to the study of gully systems on Mars.

Regional distribution and variability of model-simulated Arctic snow on sea ice

Numerical models face the challenge of representing the present-day spatiotemporal distribution of snow on sea ice realistically. We present modeled Arctic-wide snow depths on sea ice (hs_mod) obtained with the MITgcm configured with a single snow layer that accumulates proportionally to the thickness of sea ice. When compared to snow depths derived from radar measurements (NASA Operation IceBridge, 2009–2013), the model snow depths are overestimated on first-year ice (2.5 ± 8.1 cm) and multiyear ice (0.8 ± 8.3 cm). The large variance between model and observations lies mainly in the limitations of the model snow scheme and the large uncertainties in the radar measurements. In a temporal analysis, during the peak of snowfall accumulation (April), hs_mod show a decline between 2000 and 2013 associated to long-term reduction of summer sea ice extent, surface melting and sublimation. With the aim of gaining knowledge on how to improve hs_mod, we investigate the contribution of the explicitly modeled snow processes to the resulting hs_mod. Our analysis reveals that this simple snow scheme offers a practical solution to general circulation models due to its ability to replicate robustly the distribution of the large-scale Arctic snow depths. However, benefit can be gained from the integration of explicit wind redistribution processes to potentially improve the model performance and to better understand the interaction between sources and sinks of contemporary Arctic snow.

Experimental and theoretical evidence for bilayer-by-bilayer surface melting of crystalline ice

On the surface of water ice, a quasi-liquid layer (QLL) has been extensively reported at temperatures below its bulk melting point at 273 K. Approaching the bulk melting temperature from below, the thickness of the QLL is known to increase. To elucidate the precise temperature variation of the QLL, and its nature, we investigate the surface melting of hexagonal ice by combining noncontact, surface-specific vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy and spectra calculated from molecular dynamics simulations. Using SFG, we probe the outermost water layers of distinct single crystalline ice faces at different temperatures. For the basal face, a stepwise, sudden weakening of the hydrogen-bonded structure of the outermost water layers occurs at 257 K. The spectral calculations from the molecular dynamics simulations reproduce the experimental findings; this allows us to interpret our experimental findings in terms of a stepwise change from one to two molten bilayers at the transition temperature.

Changes in summer sea ice, albedo, and portioning of surface solar radiation in the Pacific sector of Arctic Ocean during 1982–2009

AbstractSSM/I sea ice concentration and CLARA black‐sky composite albedo were used to estimate sea ice albedo in the region 70°N–82°N, 130°W–180°W. The long‐term trends and seasonal evolutions of ice concentration, composite albedo, and ice albedo were then obtained. In July–August 1982–2009, the linear trend of the composite albedo and the ice albedo was −0.069 and −0.046 units per decade, respectively. During 1 June to 19 August, melting of sea ice resulted in an increase of solar heat input to the ice‐ocean system by 282 MJ·m−2 from 1982 to 2009. However, because of the counter‐balancing effects of the loss of sea ice area and the enhanced ice surface melting, the trend of solar heat input to the ice was insignificant. The summer evolution of ice albedo matched the ice surface melting and ponding well at basin scale. The ice albedo showed a large difference between the multiyear and first‐year ice because the latter melted completely by the end of a melt season. At the SHEBA geolocations, a distinct change in the ice albedo has occurred since 2007, because most of the multiyear ice has been replaced by first‐year ice. A positive polarity in the Arctic Dipole Anomaly could be partly responsible for the rapid loss of summer ice within the study region in the recent years by bringing warmer air masses from the south and advecting more ice toward the north. Both these effects would enhance ice‐albedo feedback.

Variability, Instabilities, and Eddies in a Snowball Ocean

Abstract Oceanic variability and eddy dynamics during snowball Earth events, under a kilometer of ice and driven by a very weak geothermal heat flux, are studied using a high-resolution sector model centered at the equator, where previous studies have shown the ocean circulation to be most prominent. The solution is characterized by an energetic eddy field, equatorward-propagating zonal jets, and a strongly variable equatorial meridional overturning circulation (EMOC), on the order of tens of Sverdrups (Sv; 1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), restricted to be very close to the equator. The ocean is well mixed vertically by convective mixing, and horizontal mixing rates by currents and eddies are similar to present-day values. There are two main opposite-sign zonal jets near the equator that are not eddy driven, together with multiple secondary eddy-driven jets off the equator. Barotropic stability analyses, the Lorenz energy cycle (LEC), and barotropic-to-baroclinic energy conversion rates together indicate that both baroclinic and barotropic instabilities serve as eddy-generating mechanisms. The LEC shows a dominant input into the mean available potential energy (APE) by geothermal heat flux and by surface ice melting and then transformation to eddy APE, to eddy kinetic energy, and finally to mean kinetic energy via eddy–jet interaction, similarly to the present-day atmosphere and unlike the present-day ocean. The EMOC variability is due to the interaction of warm plumes driven by geothermal heating that reach the ocean surface, leading to ice-melt events that change the stratification and, therefore, the EMOC. The results presented here may be relevant to the ocean dynamics of planetary ice-covered moons such as Europa and Enceladus.