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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
Identifier
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id= / GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00945
Custodian
  British Antarctic Survey
High Cross, Madingley Road , Cambridge , CB3 0ET , UK
+44 (0)1223 221400
Originator
  Polar Data Centre,Natural Environment Research Council,UK Research & Innovation - Frey, Markus M.
High Cross, Madingley , Cambridge , CB3 0ET , UK
+44 (0)1223 221400
Maintenance and update frequency
unknown 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
otherRestrictions 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/)
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Environment
  • Geoscientific information
  • Oceans
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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
  Polar Data Centre - British Antarctic Survey
+44 (0)1223 221400
OnLine resource
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FJ021172%2F1
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification
INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Date
Explanation
See the referenced specification
Pass
No
Statement
No special comments
File identifier
GB_NERC_BAS_PDC_00945 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2020-01-31
Metadata standard name
NERC profile of ISO19115:2003
Metadata standard version
1.0
Point of contact
  British Antarctic Survey
+44 (0)1223 221400
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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W
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Keywords


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