This project is a three-year study of the thermal, mechanical, and electrical characteristics of sea ice as evolutionary functions of the environmental ice growth conditions. The characteristics of sea ice are complex, depending on external factors such as air and ocean temperature, ocean salinity, dissolved gas content, winds and currents at the ice/ocean interface, as well as the immediate ice growth history itself. At this time the theoretically defined models of sea ice growth and development cannot be adequately tested, because independently derived data is not available. The principal investigators have developed a sea ice simulation model that takes a representative set of meteorological and oceanographic conditions and estimates not only the ice profile properties, but also the composite characteristics of sea ice sheets that have formed under a wide range of environmental conditions. The field phase of this project, to be carried out on the sea ice off Barrow, Alaska, includes the measurement of growth, structure and property profiles of undeformed first-year sea ice. Several times during the growing season ponds will be cut in order to stimulate the growth of new ice. The measurement program will track the changes in growth and characteristics through the entire cycle from formation to deterioration and melt in the following Spring and Summer. Supporting observations of the meteorological and oceanographic conditions will also be made.
