The three-dimensional light field within sea ice ridges

Sea ice pressure ridges have been recognized as important locations for both physical and biological processes. Their complex structure and internal geometry render them hard to study by field methods. To calculate the in- and under-ridge light field, we combined output from an ice mechanical model...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEarth and Space Science Open Archive ESSOAr
Main Authors Katlein, Christian, Langelier, Jean-Philippe, Oellet, Alexandre, Félix L#evesque-Desrosiers, Hisette, Quentin, Benjamin Allen Lange, Lambert-Girard, Simon, Babin, Marcel, Thibault, Simon
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington American Geophysical Union 24.02.2021
Subjects
Biological activity
Ice cover
Ice pressure
Ice thickness
Light
Light levels
Light transmittance
Monte Carlo simulation
Ray tracing
Ridges
Sea ice
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Summary:Sea ice pressure ridges have been recognized as important locations for both physical and biological processes. Their complex structure and internal geometry render them hard to study by field methods. To calculate the in- and under-ridge light field, we combined output from an ice mechanical model with a Monte-Carlo ray tracing simulation. This results in realistic light fields showing that light levels within the ridge itself are significantly higher than in the surrounding level ice. Light guided through ridge cavities and scattering in between ridge blocks also results in a more isotropic ridge-internal light field. While the true variability of light transmittance through a ridge can only be represented in ray tracing models, we show that simple parameterizations based on ice thickness and accounting for macro pores allow an estimation of mean light levels underneath ridges with reasonable accuracy.
DOI:10.1002/essoar.10506296.1