Publication Date
2-7-2022
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
Volume
10
Issue
1
DOI
10.1525/elementa.2021.000046
Abstract
Year-round observations of the physical snow and ice properties and processes that govern the ice pack evolution and its interaction with the atmosphere and the ocean were conducted during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition of the research vessel Polarstern in the Arctic Ocean from October 2019 to September 2020. This work was embedded into the interdisciplinary design of the 5 MOSAiC teams, studying the atmosphere, the sea ice, the ocean, the ecosystem, and biogeochemical processes. The overall aim of the snow and sea ice observations during MOSAiC was to characterize the physical properties of the snow and ice cover comprehensively in the central Arctic over an entire annual cycle. This objective was achieved by detailed observations of physical properties and of energy and mass balance of snow and ice. By studying snow and sea ice dynamics over nested spatial scales from centimeters to tens of kilometers, the variability across scales can be considered. On-ice observations of in situ and remote sensing properties of the different surface types over all seasons will help to improve numerical process and climate models and to establish and validate novel satellite remote sensing methods; the linkages to accompanying airborne measurements, satellite observations, and results of numerical models are discussed. We found large spatial variabilities of snow metamorphism and thermal regimes impacting sea ice growth. We conclude that the highly variable snow cover needs to be considered in more detail (in observations, remote sensing, and models) to better understand snow-related feedback processes. The ice pack revealed rapid transformations and motions along the drift in all seasons. The number of coupled ice–ocean interface processes observed in detail are expected to guide upcoming research with respect to the changing Arctic sea ice.
Funding Number
PCI2019-111844-2
Funding Sponsor
National Science Foundation
Keywords
Arctic drift study, Atmosphere–ice–ocean interaction, Coupled climate system, Interdisciplinary research, Snow and sea ice
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Recommended Citation
Marcel Nicolaus; Donald K. Perovich; Gunnar Spreen; Mats A. Granskog; Luisa von Albedyll; Michael Angelopoulos; Philipp Anhaus; Stefanie Arndt; H. Jakob Belter; Vladimir Bessonov; Gerit Birnbaum; Jörg Brauchle; Radiance Calmer; Estel Cardellach; Bin Cheng; David Clemens-Sewall; Ruzica Dadic; Ellen Damm; Gijs de Boer; Oguz Demir; Klaus Dethloff; Dmitry V. Divine; Tim Stanton; and For full author list, see comments below. "Overview of the MOSAiC expedition: Snow and sea ice" Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (2022). https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.000046
Comments
Full author list: Marcel Nicolaus, Donald K. Perovich, Gunnar Spreen, Mats A. Granskog, Luisa von Albedyll, Michael Angelopoulos, Philipp Anhaus, Stefanie Arndt, H. Jakob Belter, Vladimir Bessonov, Gerit Birnbaum, Jörg Brauchle, Radiance Calmer, Estel Cardellach, Bin Cheng, David Clemens-Sewall, Ruzica Dadic, Ellen Damm, Gijs de Boer, Oguz Demir, Klaus Dethloff, Dmitry V. Divine, Allison A. Fong, Steven Fons, Markus M. Frey, Niels Fuchs, Carolina Gabarró, Sebastian Gerland, Helge F. Goessling, Rolf Gradinger, Jari Haapala, Christian Haas, Jonathan Hamilton, Henna-Reetta Hannula, Stefan Hendricks, Andreas Herber, Céline Heuzé, Mario Hoppmann, Knut Vilhelm Høyland, Marcus Huntemann, Jennifer K. Hutchings, Byongjun Hwang, Polona Itkin, Hans-Werner Jacobi, Matthias Jaggi, Arttu Jutila, Lars Kaleschke, Christian Katlein, Nikolai Kolabutin, Daniela Krampe, Steen Savstrup Kristensen, Thomas Krumpen, Nathan Kurtz, Astrid Lampert, Benjamin Allen Lange, Ruibo Lei, Bonnie Light, Felix Linhardt, Glen E. Liston, Brice Loose, Amy R. Macfarlane, Mallik Mahmud, Ilkka O. Matero, Sönke Maus, Anne Morgenstern, Reza Naderpour, Vishnu Nandan, Alexey Niubom, Marc Oggier, Natascha Oppelt, Falk Pätzold, Christophe Perron, Tomasz Petrovsky, Roberta Pirazzini, Chris Polashenski, Benjamin Rabe, Ian A. Raphael, Julia Regnery, Markus Rex, Robert Ricker, Kathrin Riemann-Campe, Annette Rinke, Jan Rohde, Evgenii Salganik, Randall K. Scharien, Martin Schiller, Martin Schneebeli, Maximilian Semmling, Egor Shimanchuk, Matthew D. Shupe, Madison M. Smith, Vasily Smolyanitsky, Vladimir Sokolov, Tim Stanton, Julienne Stroeve, Linda Thielke, Anna Timofeeva, Rasmus Tage Tonboe, Aikaterini Tavri, Michel Tsamados, David N. Wagner, Daniel Watkins, Melinda Webster, Manfred Wendisch