This work consists of the continued analysis of a comprehensive data set on the structure of the winter-time atmospheric boundary layer over the antarctic sea ice cover. The measurements covered the upper ocean, the sea ice, and the lower atmosphere from late austral summer into the austral winter of 1992. While significant results have come from the analysis, two areas need to be examined further: the formulation of a stability correction to Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, and the application of a one-dimensional model of surface energy and mass balance model to synthesize the earlier studies, and to simulate all components of the surface heat budget throughout the entire observation period.
The Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory is a universally applied theory to explain the structure of the atmospheric surface layer, and the vertical exchange processes of energy and momentum. It is called the similarity theory because it postulates that both exchange processes are a function of a single length scale. The length scale however is an empirical function of the stability of the atmosphere and is not firmly grounded at the very high stability's found over the ice cover. The model that will be applied to the data set has been successfully used to simulate exchange processes in the stable surface layer over snow, and will be extended to the sea ice situation.
