O. Crabeck

First “in situ” determination of gas transport coefficients ( DO2, DAr, and DN2) from bulk gas concentration measurements (O2, N2, Ar) in natural sea ice

We report bulk gas concentrations of O2, N2, and Ar, as well as their transport coefficients, in natural landfast subarctic sea ice in southwest Greenland. The observed bulk ice gas composition was 27.5% O2, 71.4% N2, and 1.09% Ar. Most previous studies suggest that convective transport is the main driver of gas displacement in sea ice and have neglected diffusion processes. According to our data, brines were stratified within the ice, so that no convective transport could occur within the brine system. Therefore, diffusive transport was the main driver of gas migration. By analyzing the temporal evolution of an internal gas peak within the ice, we deduced the bulk gas transport coefficients for oxygen (DO2), argon (DAr), and nitrogen (DN2). The values fit to the few existing estimates from experimental work, and are close to the diffusivity values in water (10-5 cm2 s-1). We suggest that gas bubbles escaping from the brine to the atmosphereas the ice gets more permeable during meltcould be responsible for the previously reported high transport coefficients. These results underline that when there is no convective transport within the sea ice, the transport of gas by diffusion through the brines, either in the liquid or gaseous phases, is a major factor in controlling the ocean-atmosphere exchange.

Replacement of multiyear sea ice and changes in the open water season duration in the Beaufort Sea since 2004

The last decade has witnessed the nine lowest Arctic September sea ice extents in the observational record. It also forms the most recent third of the long-term trend in that record, which reached -13.4% decade-1 in 2015. While hemispheric analyses paint a compelling picture of sea ice loss across the Arctic, the situation with multiyear ice in the Beaufort Sea is particularly dire. This study was undertaken in light of substantial changes that have occurred in the extent of summer multiyear sea ice in the Arctic inferred from the passive microwave record. To better elucidate these changes at a sub-regional scale, we use data from the Canadian Ice Service archive, the most direct observations of sea ice stage-of-development available. We also build upon the only previous sea ice climatological analysis for Canadas western Arctic region by sea ice stage-of-development that ended in 2004. The annual evolution of sea ice by stage of development in Canadas western Arctic changed dramatically between 1983 and 2014. The rate of these changes and their spatial prevalence were most prominent in the last decade. In summer, total sea ice loss occurred via reductions in old and first-year sea ice over increasingly large areas and over more months per year. Resultant delay of thermodynamic freeze up has increased the annual open water duration in the study region. The winter sea ice cover was increasingly composed of first-year sea ice at the expense of old ice. Breakup timing has not significantly changed in the region.