Lead Edge - Barrow, AK

Main Page
Research
Image Gallery
People
Student Opportunities
Outreach
Publications
Teaching
Contacts
Links
Field Blogs

Introduction

Methods

Seasonal
progression

Permeability & Dispersion

Meltwater
percolation

Large-scale
transport

Conclusions

Hajo Eicken's
homepage

Sea-ice permeability and dispersive/advective transport

 

Lateral dispersion of tracers released into cylindrical holes in the upper 0.4 m of a level white ice cover on day 164 (left) and day 197 (right)

Note how low permeability of ice cover limits dispersion in early-melt-season ice shown at left.
Later in the melt season permeability increases substantially, allowing for dispersion and advection of tracers. In the example shown at right (in a level floe approximately 20 m away from the floe edge), advection of the tracer maximum out of the central location may in part be driven by pressure gradients influenced by fluid drag at the floe wall. Note in particular the difference in time scale between the two experiments.

 


Last update: August 27, 1999

Back to Introduction

Back to top