Thermodynamics of sea ice phase composition revisited

Vancoppenolle, Martin, Madec, Gurvan, Thomas, Max and McDougall, Trevor J. (2019) Thermodynamics of sea ice phase composition revisited. Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 124 (1). pp. 615-634. ISSN 2169-9275

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Abstract

Pure ice, brine and solid minerals are the main contributors to sea ice mass. Constitutional changes with salinity and temperature exert a fundamental control on sea ice physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, current estimation methods and model representations of the sea ice phase composition suffer from two limitations—in a context of poorly quantified uncertainties. First, salt minerals are neglected. Second, formulations are inconsistent with international standards, in particular with the International Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater (TEOS-10). To address these issues, we revisit the thermodynamics of the sea ice phase composition by confronting observations, theory, and the usual computation methods. We find remarkable agreement between observations and the Gibbs-Pitzer theory as implemented in FREZCHEM, both for brine salinity (RMSE=1.9g/kg) and liquid H2O mass fraction(RMSE=8.6g/kg). On this basis, we propose expanded sea ice phase composition equations including minerals, expressed in terms of International Temperature Scale 1990 temperature and absolute salinity,and valid down to the eutectic temperature (−36.2◦C). These equations precisely reproduce FREZCHEM,outcompeting currently used calculation techniques. We also suggest a modification of the TEOS-10seawater Gibbs function giving a liquidus curve consistent with observations down to the eutectic temperature without changing TEOS-10 inside its original validity range.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sea ice,thermodynamics,phase,minerals
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2019 11:30
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 04:28
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/69928
DOI:	10.1029/2018JC014611

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