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Physical Oceanography

Boundary layer turbulence: Under ice boundary layer

Beneath the sea ice, the exchange of momentum, heat and salt occurs at the ice-ocean interface.

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The sea ice is widely accepted to have a large impact on climate and climate change and the factors affecting the mass and energy balance of sea ice are of primary importance. Sea ice is nearly in constant motion due to forcing by wind, ocean currents and tides, generating a sheared boundary layer between the moving ice and the underlying ocean. The turbulent boundary layer structure associated mixing length scales, drag coefficient, and transfer coefficients for heat and salt are studied mainly by collecting eddy-correlation, turbulent flux measurements from instruments beneath a drifting ice floe or fast ice in a tidally active fjord.

Contact: Ilker Fer