Theoretical estimates of light transmittance at the MOSAiC Central Observatory

Light transmission through a sea ice cover has strong implications for the heat content of the upper ocean, the magnitude of bottom and lateral ice melt, and primary productivity in the ocean. Light transmittance in the vicinity of the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) Central Observatory was estimated by driving a two-stream radiative transfer model with physical property observations. Data include point and transect observations of snow depth, surface scattering layer thickness, ice thickness, and pond depth. The temporal evolution of light transmittance at specific sites and the spatial variability along transect lines were computed. Ponds transmitted 4–6 times as much solar energy per unit area as bare ice. On July 25, ponds covered about 18% of the area and contributed roughly 50% of the sunlight transmitted through the ice cover. Approximating the transmittance along a transect line using average values for the physical properties will always result in lower light transmittance than finding the average light transmittance using the full distribution of points. Transmitted solar energy calculated using the standard five ice thickness categories and three surface types used in the Los Alamos sea ice model CICE, the sea ice component of many weather and climate models, was only about 1 W m−2 less than using all the points along the transect. This minor difference suggests that the important processes and resulting feedbacks relating to solar transmittance can be represented in models that use five or more categories of ice thickness distributions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Elementa Science of the Anthropocene
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2024.00076
Primary Topic
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
Type
article
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article

Theoretical estimates of light transmittance at the MOSAiC Central Observatory

Bonnie Light, David Clemens‐Sewall, Christopher J. Cox, Amy R. Macfarlane et al.
1 links
Elementa Science of the Anthropocene
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
article

Theoretical estimates of light transmittance at the MOSAiC Central Observatory

Bonnie Light, David Clemens‐Sewall, Christopher J. Cox, Amy R. Macfarlane, Donald K. Perovich, Natascha Oppelt, Felix Linhardt, Ian Raphael, Chris Polashenski, Melinda Webster, Marika M. Holland, Madison M. Smith, Julienne Strœve, Ran Tao, A. P. Barrett, Matthew D. Shupe, Marcel Nicolaus, Polona Itkin
article en

Abstract

Light transmission through a sea ice cover has strong implications for the heat content of the upper ocean, the magnitude of bottom and lateral ice melt, and primary productivity in the ocean. Light transmittance in the vicinity of the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) Central Observatory was estimated by driving a two-stream radiative transfer model with physical property observations. Data include point and transect observations of snow depth, surface scattering layer thickness, ice thickness, and pond depth. The temporal evolution of light transmittance at specific sites and the spatial variability along transect lines were computed. Ponds transmitted 4–6 times as much solar energy per unit area as bare ice. On July 25, ponds covered about 18% of the area and contributed roughly 50% of the sunlight transmitted through the ice cover. Approximating the transmittance along a transect line using average values for the physical properties will always result in lower light transmittance than finding the average light transmittance using the full distribution of points. Transmitted solar energy calculated using the standard five ice thickness categories and three surface types used in the Los Alamos sea ice model CICE, the sea ice component of many weather and climate models, was only about 1 W m−2 less than using all the points along the transect. This minor difference suggests that the important processes and resulting feedbacks relating to solar transmittance can be represented in models that use five or more categories of ice thickness distributions.

Elementa Science of the AnthropoceneVol. 13(1)
Dartmouth College (US), Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (US), Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Kiel (DE), Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE), Northumbria University (GB), NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory (US), NSF NCAR Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory (US), University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (US), Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies (US), University of Manitoba (CA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US), UiT The Arctic University of Norway (NO), Norwegian Polar Institute (NO)
Openalex Percentile: Top 83%
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
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