Take a guess: into what category do these words fall? Frazil… Shuga… Pancake… Nilas… Brash… Bergy Bit… Hummock…
Breakfast foods? Plants? Muppets? These are actually categories of sea ice. A researcher onboard, Alice Orlich from the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University Alaska Fairbanks, has spent the last 6 summers conducting sea ice observations in the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. This season, she is instructing IARC Summer School students to observe the sea ice conditions along the NABOS cruise track. Visual shipborne sea ice observations are made from the “bridge” (where the Captain and crew drive the ship) which has the highest view of the ocean and ice cover from the ship – plus there is access to navigation information like latitude, longitude, wind speed, and ship speed. (Working on the bridge also takes some “navigating” of ship protocols – in other words, don’t get in the way of the captain, officers and crew.) Panorama photos are taken for each hourly observation to capture the ice conditions around the front of the ship, and more are taken to focus in on some features to document what’s really going on in the ice. And there can be a LOT of things going on – the World Meteorological Organization has defined 120 terms (!) in 11 categories to describe sea ice and its relation to the atmosphere and navigational issues , based on its formation, scale, age, thickness, etc. What are some of the things we have seen so far?
Nilas (thin ice, about 10 cm thick, that has formed within the current ice growth season) with “frost flowers” (the tiny white dots) forming on it. For scale, the biggest cracked piece of ice here is about 6 feet (2 meters) across.
This first year ice floe survived the recent melt season and has refrozen. This “amoeba” (not an official term, but it looks like it anyway), is about 5 feet long (less than 2 meters). It is slightly raised from the ice surrounding it (that dark color is thin, refrozen ice – not water), and the white areas are dryer ice where the water has drained from it.
This 4 foot (less than 1.5meters) thick ice was just cracked by the ship. It is first-year ice that formed at the beginning of last year’s growth season (late summer/early fall 2012), but since we are coming around to that time of year again, this would also now be known as second-year or multi-year ice. The white layer is the top, and in the bottom layer, you can see sediments that were in the ice as it formed. The blue layer is the clearest, most compressed layer.
Trick question – where is the open water in this picture? (This will be good to know if you’re ever stuck in Arctic ice.) You can tell by the “water-sky” effect. See where there is a dark layer of clouds in the distance? Those are actually areas where not as much light is being reflected back up to the clouds. So the answer to the question is: Below the water-sky.
Hi Lindsay:) I don’t really know if you have been asked this question before but I’m carious . After everything you have explored in the Arctic so far , would you consider living in there if you had the chance?
Dear Grethel, I would come back in a heartbeat on another expedition like this! It’s very challenging, but very rewarding. Ship’s don’t stay out here permanently, so you can’t officially live here, but some places in northern Canada and Asia are considered “arctic” as defined by their average temperatures. I actually like the cold weather, so I wouldn’t mind it!
What method was used to distinguish the diffrence between each ice ? What made it stand out from the rest ?
Hi Jeyny, we observe ice from a distance using satellites, and then we use our own eyes to observe it up close. And those differences are really important, because it has to do with when the ice formed and the conditions the ice has been in since it formed (that affects its color, its thickness, or whether it has been melted or if any excess water droplets have drained out of it), and also has to do with where it formed (if it formed near to land, then it could have some sediment in it and look browner, and could also tell you about wind and other conditions, if the ice has moved a lot). So there is lots to observe!
Lindsay, this is the coolest post yet. I love ice and I had never heard of nilas and some of the other terms. It may be brash of me but now I have a taste for pancakes.
In honor of The Chunk!
Hey JohnLL, I was thinking of you and The Chunk when I wrote that post! Frazil and Shuga still make me laugh every time.
Privet, Lindsay,
13-year-old schoolchildren and me are following your pictures at the English class and having some discussions. There are various guesses about different colours of ice layers: remains of microorganisms, acid rain, different seasons or weather… What do scientists say about colour changes of the ice?
Privet Valentina! Great question, I actually have it on my list of things to write about! The layers and colors have to do with a few things: 1-when the ice formed (for example, in general, younger ice is thinner and darker, and older ice is more compressed which means that there are fewer bubbles, so the ice looks clearer), 2- the temperature and ice conditions since the ice formed (for example, if ice on the surface or the bottom has melted and refrozen), 3-where the ice was formed (for example, if it was formed near land, there will be more sediments in the ice, causing the ice to look a little more brown). A good way to remember it is: the bluer the ice, the older the ice! Check out http://www.nsidc.org/cryosphere