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Sea ice. Broken pieces of Arctic sea ice with a snow cover. Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. [1] [2] [3] Much of the world's sea ...
Sea ice growth processes. Sea ice is a complex composite composed primarily of pure ice in various states of crystallization, but including air bubbles and pockets of brine. Understanding its growth processes is important for climate modellers and remote sensing specialists, since the composition and microstructural properties of the ice affect ...
To estimate ice area, scientists calculate the percentage of sea ice in each pixel, multiply by the pixel area, and total the amounts. Scientists set a threshold percentage to estimate ice extent, and count every pixel meeting or exceeding that threshold as "ice-covered." The common threshold is 15 %.
The Arctic sea ice covers less area in the summer than in the winter. The multi-year (i.e. perennial) sea ice covers nearly all of the central deep basins. The Arctic sea ice and its related biota are unique, and the year-round persistence of the ice has allowed the development of ice endemic species, meaning species not found anywhere else.
Fully formed sea ice can be forced together by currents and winds to form pressure ridges up to 12 metres (39 ft) tall. [51] On the other hand, active wave activity can reduce sea ice to small, regularly shaped pieces, known as pancake ice. [52] Sometimes, wind and wave activity "polishes" sea ice to perfectly spherical pieces known as ice eggs.
Sea ice concentration. Sea ice concentration is a useful variable for climate scientists and nautical navigators. It is defined as the area of sea ice relative to the total at a given point in the ocean . This article will deal primarily with its determination from remote sensing measurements.
The brine will travel along the seafloor in a down-slope direction. A brinicle ( brine icicle, also known as ice stalactite) is a downward-growing hollow tube of ice enclosing a plume of descending brine that is formed beneath developing sea ice . As seawater freezes in the polar ocean, salt brine concentrates are expelled from the sea ice ...
Phases of ice. Log-lin pressure-temperature phase diagram of water. The Roman numerals correspond to some ice phases listed below. The phases of ice are all possible states of matter for water as a solid. Variations in pressure and temperature give rise to different phases, which have varying properties and molecular geometries.