Turbulent heat transfer as a control of platelet ice growth
Details of Research
TitleTurbulent heat transfer as a control of platelet ice growth in supercooled under-ice ocean boundary layersAbstractLate winter measurements of turbulent quantities in tidally modulated flow under land-fast sea ice near the Erebus Glacier Tongue, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, identified processes that influence growth at the interface of an ice surface in contact with supercooled seawater. The data show that turbulent heat exchange at the ocean-ice boundary is characterized by the product of friction velocity and (negative) water temperature departure from freezing, analogous to similar results for moderate melting rates in seawater above freezing. Platelet ice growth appears to increase the hydraulic roughness (drag) of fast ice compared with undeformed fast ice without platelets. Platelet growth in supercooled water under thick ice appears to be rate-limited by turbulent heat transfer and that this is a significant factor to be considered in mass transfer at the underside of ice shelves and sea ice in the vicinity of ice shelves. Copyright Author(s) 2016.AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank Pat Langhorne for discussion and support. Tim Haskell, Brett Grant, Tim Stanton, Jim Stockel, Alex Forrest, Martin Doble and the staff of Scott Base are thanked for their support in the field. Metadata are lodged with Antarctica New Zealand. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments. The work was funded by The New Zealand Royal Society-administered Marsden Fund, and USA NSF support to McPhee (ANT-0732804). I. J. Smith's involvement was supported through University of Otago Research Grant 111030. Logistic support was provided by Antarctica New Zealand and the USAP.Funding DetailsANT-0732804, NSF, National Science Foundation
TypeArticleCitationMcPhee, M., Stevens, C., Smith, I. and Robinson, N. (2016). Turbulent heat transfer as a control of platelet ice growth in supercooled under-ice ocean boundary layers. Ocean Science, 12(2): 507-515 IdentifierMcPhee2016Relevancerank5
Robinson, N., Turbulent heat transfer as a control of platelet ice growth , [McPhee2016]. Antarctica NZ, accessed 19/06/2025, https://adam.antarcticanz.govt.nz/nodes/view/63669, 10.5194/os-12-507-2016