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Thermal Expansion Coefficients For Sea Ice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jerome Β. Johnson
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Fort Wainwright, Alaska 99703–7860, U.S.A.
Ronald C. Metzner
Affiliation:
Chugiak High School, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Coefficients of thermal linear expansion were determined for sea ice using a Michelson interferometer. Over a temperature range of −4 °to −15 °C, the coefficients varied from 45 ×10−6 to 54×10−6 °C−1 for ice with a salinity of 2 ppt, and from 33 ×10−6 to 53 ×10−6 °C−1 for ice with a salinity of 4 ppt. Initially, warming the sea ice resulted in coefficients that were the same as those for fresh-water ice, within the limits of experimental error. Subsequent sea-ice cooling resulted in coefficients that were initially lower than those for fresh-water ice, but that asymptotically approached the coefficient values for fresh-water ice at colder temperatures. On the second warming and cooling cycle, the coefficients of thermal linear expansion exhibited hysteresis and a decrease in magnitudes. We have also shown that Pettersson’s (1883) and Malmgren’s (1927) measurements of the thermal volume expansion of sea ice were the result of phase transitions that caused brine expulsion, when air-free sea ice was cooled, and internal porosity increases, when sea ice was warmed.

Our results indicate that Petterson’s (1883) and Malmgren’s (1927) measurements of the thermal volume expansion of sea ice are in error. Consequently, theoretical descriptions based on their results are incorrect (Anderson, 1960; Zubov and Savelyev (given in Doronin and Kheisin (1977)); Doronin and Kheisin, 1977). Our results for the initial sea-ice warming cycle do agree with Cox’s (1983) analysis.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1990
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Comparison of the calculated apparent coefficients of thermal volume expansion for sea ice with the values from (a) Pettersson (1883), and (b) Malmgren (1927).

Figure 1

Fig. 2. (a). Michelson interferometer assembly (details of the cold stage are shown in Figure 2b). Vibrations from the bath’s compressor and pump motors, and fluid pressure pulses caused by the pump were attenuated using large damping masses on inlet and outlet cooling tubes and a surge chamber on the cold-stage inlet, (b). Cold stage and fused-quartz sample holder.

Figure 2

Fig. 3. Output voltage from the two photodetectors and the temperature record for the first warming test on 2 ppt saline ice. The arrows show the start and end times for the test.

Figure 3

TABLE I. Thermal linear expansion and coefficients of thermal linear expansion for sea ice

Figure 4

Fig. 4. Thermal linear expansion for sea ice. The arrows show the direction of temperature change during a test.

Figure 5

Fig. 5. Instantaneous coefficients of thermal linear expansion for sea ice determined in this study and coefficients of thermal linear expansion for fresh-water ice (0 ppt) determined by Butkovich ( 1959).