Sea ice thickness
Sea ice thickness varies rapidly with weather and climate.
Sea ice thickness is a property that can change rapidly in response to weather and climate, influencing heat, salt, and fresh water fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere. It is measured by satellites such as the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder and the European Space Agency's Cryosat-2, while volume is estimated using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System. Thickness also matters for navigation, as icebreakers have an upper limit to the ice they can traverse.
Quick Facts
- Measurement satellite
- Special Sensor Microwave Imager; Sounder (SSMIS)
- Volume calculation system
- Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS)
- Ice thickness meter
- E-M Bird ice thickness meter
- Designer of e-m bird
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
- Icesat active period
- February 2003 to October 2009
- Smos mission purpose
- First orbital mission to measure salinity of the Earth’s surface
Facts from the source article.
Measurement
Ice thickness can be obtained directly by taking an ice core, remotely via ice mass balance buoys, or more efficiently through satellite measurements. Submarine sonar or radar systems measuring ice draft—the depth below the waterline—provide good estimates if snow cover is minimal. Sea ice freeboard, the height of the ice surface above water in open leads, is used to compute thickness, since 85–95% of snow-free ice lies below the waterline; accurate freeboard measurement is complicated by snow cover, and modeling continues to improve.
The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) operated from February 2003 to October 2009, measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, and land topography. The European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, the first orbital mission to measure surface salinity, can show data through most clouds and during darkness. The E-M Bird ice thickness meter, designed by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, is carried by helicopter and uses inductance coils to detect the ice-water interface and a laser altimeter to measure the ice surface; it was used in 2007 during the Pol-Ice campaign and on a larger scale during the GreenICE campaign in 2004 and 2005.
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