Surface roughness of Baltic sea ice

Small-, medium-, and large-scale measurements of sea ice surface roughness were carried out in the Baltic Sea over a 3-year period. A clear relationship was found between the rms height and correlation length of Baltic sea ice. In most cases the surface correlation function was close to exponential. The logarithm of rms height showed a linear dependence on that of measured distance. Similarly, the correlation length was in many cases linearly dependent on the measured distance. This dependence on length suggests that ice surface roughness could be characterized as a fractal.