Salinity profiles of snow on sea ice in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica) during austral winter 2013

Small particles (known as aerosol) in the atmosphere play several critical roles. They affect the transmission of sunlight to the underlying surface; they affect the formation of clouds, and they host and enhance important chemical reactions. When they are deposited on ice they leave a record of past conditions that can be accessed by drilling ice cores. The most significant aerosol component over marine areas is sea salt aerosol. Over most of the world''s oceans this is created by bubble bursting in sea spray. However there is strong evidence that another source of sea salt aerosol is important in the polar regions, and that this ultimately derives from the surface of sea ice. The existence of this source forms the basis for a proposed method using ice core data for determining changes in sea ice extent over long time periods. Additionally sea salt aerosol, along with salty sea ice surfaces, is the host for the production of halogen compounds which seem to play a key role in the oxidation chemistry of the polar regions. It is therefore important to understand the sources of polar sea salt aerosol and therefore to be able to predict how they may vary with, and feedback to, climate.



It was recently proposed that the main source of this polar sea salt aerosol was the sublimation of salty blowing snow. The idea is that snow on sea ice has a significant salinity. When this salty snow is mobilised into blowing snow, sublimation from the (top of) the blowing snow layer will allow the formation of sea salt aerosol above the blowing snow layer, that can remain airborne after the blowing snow has ceased. First calculations suggested that this would provide a strong source of aerosol (greater than that from open ocean processes over an equivalent area). It was proposed that this would have a strong influence on polar halogen chemistry and a noticeable influence on halogens at lower latitudes. However, this was based on estimates of the relevant parameters as there were no data about aerosol production from this source, and almost no data about blowing snow over sea ice in general.



Participation in a rare sea ice cruise onboard the German ice breaker Polarstern operated by Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI) provided the opportunity to access the sea ice covered Weddell Sea during Austral winter 2013. Snow on sea ice was sampled at various locations, and the snow salinity was subsequently measured in the ship''s laboratory.

Simple

Alternate title

Polar Data Centre (PDC) record GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00945
Date (Publication)
2020-01-31
Citation identifier
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id= / GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00945
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

British Antarctic Survey

pdc@bas.ac.uk

Custodian

Polar Data Centre; British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council; Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK.

Frey, M.

pdc@bas.ac.uk

Originator
Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown
Keywords

  • NDGO0001

NERC OAI Harvesting

  • NERC_DDC

GCMD Parameter Valids

  • EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Sea Ice > Salinity

BAS Free-text keywords

  • Weddell Sea

  • bulk salinity profiles

  • sea ice

  • surface snow
Use limitation

This dataset is made available under the Open Government Licence 3.0 ( http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)

Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

This dataset is made available under the Open Government Licence 3.0 ( http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)

Language
English
Topic category
  • Environment
  • Geoscientific information
  • Oceans
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S
E
W
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Begin date
2013-06-21
End date
2013-08-04
Reference system identifier
OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
Distribution format
    Distributor contact
    Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

    Polar Data Centre - British Antarctic Survey

    pdc@bas.ac.uk

    		Distributor
    OnLine resource
    Protocol Linkage Name

    http

    GET DATA
    Hierarchy level
    Dataset

    Domain consistency

    Measure identification
    INSPIRE / Conformity_001

    Conformance result

    Title

    INSPIRE Data Specification on unknown theme Guidelines
    Date
    Explanation

    See the referenced specification
    Pass
    No
    Statement

    No special comments

    Metadata

    File identifier
    GB_NERC_BAS_PDC_00945 XML
    Metadata language
    English
    Hierarchy level
    Dataset
    Date stamp
    2020-01-31
    Metadata standard name

    NERC profile of ISO19115:2003
    Metadata standard version

    1.0
    Metadata author
    Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

    British Antarctic Survey

    pdc@bas.ac.uk

    		Point of contact
    Dataset URI

    http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00945

     
     

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    Spatial extent

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    Keywords



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