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On the extraordinary snow on the sea ice off East Antarctica in late winter, 2012

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Title: On the extraordinary snow on the sea ice off East Antarctica in late winter, 2012
Authors: Toyota, Takenobu Browse this author →KAKEN DB
Massom, Robert Browse this author
Lecomte, Olivier Browse this author
Nomura, Daiki Browse this author
Heil, Petra Browse this author
Tamura, Takeshi Browse this author
Fraser, Alexander D. Browse this author
Keywords: Antarctic snow on sea ice
Snow accumulation around the Antarctic
Snow-ice formation
Loss of snow into leads
ERA-Interim
Regional index term: East Antarctica
Issue Date: 9-Feb-2016
Publisher: Elsevier
Journal Title: Deep Sea Research Part II Topical Studies in Oceanography
Volume: 131
Start Page: 53
End Page: 67
Publisher DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2016.02.003
Abstract: In late winter-early spring 2012, the second Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystems Experiment (SIPEX II) was conducted off Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, onboard R/V Aurora Australis. The sea-ice conditions were characterized by significantly thick first-year ice and snow, trapping the ship for about 10 days in the near coastal region. The deep snow cover was particularly remarkable, in that its average value of 0.45 m was almost three times that observed between 1992 and 2007 in the region. To reveal factors responsible, we used in situ observations and ERA-Interim reanalysis (1990-2012) to examine the relative contribution of the different components of the local-regional snow mass balance equation i.e., snow accumulation on sea ice, precipitation minus evaporation (P-E), and loss by (i) snow-ice formation and (ii) entering into leads due to drifting snow. Results show no evidence for significantly high P-E in the winter of 2012. Ice core analysis has shown that although the snow-ice layer was relatively thin, indicating less transformation from snow to snow-ice in 2012 as compared to measurements from 2007, the difference was not enough to explain the extraordinarily deep snow. Based on these results, we deduce that lower loss of snow into leads was probably responsible for the extraordinary snow in 2012. Statistical analysis and satellite images suggest that the reduction in loss of snow into leads is attributed to rough ice surface associated with active deformation processes and larger floe size due to sea-ice expansion. This highlights the importance of snow-sea ice interaction in determining the mean snow depth on Antarctic sea ice. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Rights: ©2016, Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Type: article (author version)
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2115/68311
Appears in Collections:低温科学研究所 (Institute of Low Temperature Science) > 雑誌発表論文等 (Peer-reviewed Journal Articles, etc)

Submitter: 豊田 威信

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