Snow contribution to first‐year and second‐year Arctic sea ice mass balance north of Svalbard

The salinity and water oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of twenty-nine first-year (FYI) and second-year (SYI) Arctic sea ice cores (total length 32.0 m) from the drifting ice pack north of Svalbard were examined to quantify the contribution of snow to sea ice mass. Five cores (total length 6.4 m) were analyzed for their structural composition showing variable contribution of 10-30% by granular ice. In these cores snow had been entrained in 6 to 28% of the total ice thickness. We found evidence of snow contribution in about three quarter of the sea ice cores, when surface granular layers had very low δ18O values. Snow contributed 7.5-9.7% to sea ice mass balance on average (including also cores with no snow) using δ18O mass balance calculations. In SYI cores snow fraction by mass (12.7-16.3%) was much higher than in FYI cores (3.3-4.4%), while the bulk salinity of FYI (4.9) was distinctively higher than for SYI (2.7). We surmise that oxygen isotopes and salinity profiles can give information on the age of the ice and allows to distinguish between FYI and SYI (or older) ice in the area north of Svalbard. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

[1]  H. Eicken.  Deriving Modes and Rates of Ice Growth in the Weddell Sea from Microstructural, Salinity and Stable‐Isotope Data , 2013 .

[2]  R. Macdonald,et al.  The freshwater budget and under-ice spreading of Mackenzie River water in the Canadian Beaufort Sea based on salinity and18O/16O measurements in water and ice , 1995 .

[3]  M. Granskog,et al.  Meteoric ice contribution and influence of weather on landfast ice growth in the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea , 2011, Annals of Glaciology.

[4]  Stephen F. Ackley,et al.  18O Concentrations In Sea Ice Of The Weddell Sea, Antarctica , 1990, Journal of Glaciology.

[5]  Son V. Nghiem,et al.  Interdecadal changes in snow depth on Arctic sea ice , 2014 .

[6]  Hajo Eicken,et al.  Interannual variability of summer sea ice thickness in the Siberian and central Arctic under different atmospheric circulation regimes , 2001 .

[7]  Anja Rösel,et al.  Observations of flooding and snow‐ice formation in a thinner Arctic sea‐ice regime during the N‐ICE2015 campaign: Influence of basal ice melt and storms , 2017 .

[8]  M. Granskog,et al.  Development, structure and composition of land-fast sea ice in the northern Baltic Sea , 2003, Journal of Glaciology.

[9]  T. Kawamura,et al.  Physical properties and isotopic characteristics of landfast sea ice around the North Water (NOW) Polynya region , 2001 .

[10]  Angelika H. H. Renner,et al.  Small-scale horizontal variability of snow, sea-ice thickness and freeboard in the first-year ice region north of Svalbard , 2013, Annals of Glaciology.

[11]  F. M. Selten,et al.  Future increases in Arctic precipitation linked to local evaporation and sea-ice retreat , 2014, Nature.

[12]  M. Wakatsuchi,et al.  Physical and stable isotopic properties and growth processes of sea ice collected in the southern Sea of Okhotsk , 2000 .

[13]  Bin Cheng,et al.  Superimposed ice formation and surface energy fluxes on sea ice during the spring melt–freeze period in the Baltic Sea , 2006, Journal of Glaciology.

[14]  P. Wadhams,et al.  Characteristics and distribution patterns of snow and meteoric ice in the Weddell Sea and their contribution to the mass balance of sea ice , 1994 .

[15]  D. Perovich,et al.  Sea ice mass balance observations from the North Pole Environmental Observatory , 2014 .

[16]  M. Leppäranta.  A Growth Model for Black Ice, Snow Ice and Snow Thickness in Subarctic Basins , 1983 .

[17]  A. Gow,et al.  Physical characteristics of summer sea ice across the Arctic Ocean , 1999 .

[18]  M. Granskog,et al.  Time-series observations of the structure and properties of brackish ice in the Gulf of Finland , 2001, Annals of Glaciology.

[19]  G. Nehrke,et al.  Characterization of ikaite (CaCO3·6H2O) crystals in first-year Arctic sea ice north of Svalbard , 2012, Annals of Glaciology.

[20]  P. Langhorne,et al.  Oxygen isotope fractionation during the freezing of sea water , 2013, Journal of Glaciology.

[21]  K. Ohshima,et al.  Physical, structural, and isotopic characteristics and growth processes of fast sea ice in Lützow‐Holm Bay, Antarctica , 1997 .

[22]  R. Lindsay,et al.  Arctic sea ice thickness loss determined using subsurface, aircraft, and satellite observations , 2014 .

[23]  Manfred A. Lange.  Basic properties of Antarctic sea ice as revealed by textural analysis of ice cores , 1988 .

[24]  C. Bitz,et al.  Projected decline in spring snow depth on Arctic sea ice caused by progressively later autumn open ocean freeze‐up this century , 2012 .

[25]  E. Hansen,et al.  The freshwater composition of the Fram Strait outflow derived from a decade of tracer measurements , 2012 .

[26]  A. Gow,et al.  Thickness, structure, and properties of level summer multiyear ice in the Eurasian sector of the Arctic Ocean , 1995 .

[27]  Bruce C. Elder,et al.  Transpolar observations of the morphological properties of Arctic sea ice , 2009 .

[28]  M. Maqueda,et al.  Modelling the influence of snow accumulation and snow-ice formation on the seasonal cycle of the Antarctic sea-ice cover , 1999 .

[29]  Philipp Assmy,et al.  Arctic Research on Thin Ice: Consequences of Arctic Sea Ice Loss , 2016 .

[30]  Bin Cheng,et al.  Thin ice and storms: Sea ice deformation from buoy arrays deployed during N-ICE2015 , 2017 .

[31]  T. Maksym,et al.  Snow-ice accretion and snow-cover depletion on Antarctic first-year sea-ice floes , 2001, Annals of Glaciology.

[32]  Seasonal variations in the properties and structural composition of sea ice and snow cover in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas, Antarctica , 1997 .

[33]  M. Granskog,et al.  Seasonal development of the properties and composition of landfast sea ice in the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea , 2004 .

[34]  Nathan T. Kurtz,et al.  Large‐scale surveys of snow depth on Arctic sea ice from Operation IceBridge , 2011 .

[35]  C. Haas,et al.  Observations of superimposed ice formation at melt-onset on fast ice on Kongsfjorden, Svalbard , 2002 .

[36]  C. Haas,et al.  Surface properties and processes of perennial Antarctic sea ice in summer , 2001, Journal of Glaciology.

[37]  Fanny Girard-Ardhuin,et al.  Enhanced Arctic Sea Ice Drift Estimation Merging Radiometer and Scatterometer Data , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[38]  Raymond A. Shaw,et al.  Crystal structure, stable isotopes (δ18O), and development of sea ice in the Ross, Amundsen, and Bellingshausen seas, Antarctica , 1994 .

[39]  T. Krumpen,et al.  Impact of Siberian coastal polynyas on shelf-derived Arctic Ocean halocline waters , 2012 .

[40]  Vladimir F. Radionov,et al.  Snow Depth on Arctic Sea Ice , 1999 .

[41]  Walter B. Tucker,et al.  Microwave and physical properties of sea ice in the winter marginal ice zone , 1991 .

[42]  Ian Allison,et al.  Snow on Antarctic sea ice , 2001 .

[43]  Jeffrey R. Key,et al.  Arctic sea ice in transformation: A review of recent observed changes and impacts on biology and human activity , 2014 .